Fox News did not disclose its all-women town hall with Trump was packed with his supporters
Fox News hosted an all-women town hall with former President Donald Trump, billed as an opportunity for female voters to ask the Republican candidate questions that matter to them. But the network did not disclose that the audience it selected was packed with local Republican supporters of Trump and Fox News edited its broadcast to remove some of their vocal advocacy of the former president.
The Georgia Federation of Republican Women wrote on its Facebook page Wednesday that the group helped host the event, posting photos from the venue and writing they were “Super excited for the opportunity of hosting this event right here in Georgia!”
Shortly after CNN reached out to the group and Fox News about their role, the post was edited to state they were “excited for the opportunity of attending this event right here in Georgia!”
Republican Women of Forsyth County also posted a video from the event showing attendees chatting with Trump and Fox News host Harris Faulkner.
A Fox News spokesperson told CNN the event was not hosted by any Republican group and that it was the network’s event alone. The local Republican groups did not respond to CNN requests for comment Wednesday.
Read more details here about the town hall
Vance says “no” Trump did not lose the 2020 election, “not by the words that I would use”
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said “no” former President Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election, “not by the words” that he would use, when asked what message it sends to independent voters that he has not directly answered that question.
Vance said he cares more about what happened with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in leadership over the past three and half years and is focused back on the issues facing Pennsylvania voters.
Campaigning with Republicans in Pennsylvania, Harris calls Trump “increasingly unstable and unhinged”
Vice President Kamala Harris called Donald Trump “increasingly unstable and unhinged” Wednesday, as she invoked those who have previously worked for the former president and no longer support him.
She noted how many of Trump’s closest advisers during his presidency have come out against their former boss, She mentioned, in particular, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who reportedly told journalist Bob Woodward that he believes his old boss is a “fascist.”
Harris added that America must heed Milley’s warning “because anyone who tramples on our democratic values as Donald Trump has, anyone who has called for the, quote, termination of the Constitution of the United States as Donald Trump has, must never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States.”
The Democratic presidential nominee then made an appeal to voters in the battleground state, saying, “If you share that view, no matter your party, no matter who you voted for last time, there is a place for you in this campaign.”
Trump repeats false claims that Haitian migrants in Ohio town are eating pets
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated his false claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbors’ pets, using a town hall with undecided Latino voters to prop up misinformation that has been rejected by local and statewide leaders from both parties.
Asked by an audience member if he truly believed the story, Trump insisted he was only “saying what was reported.”
“All I do is report,” Trump said, not sharing his sources other than to name “newspapers.” The former president also – again without any evidence — said the migrant community is “eating other things too that they’re not supposed to be.”
His latest incendiary remarks came during a Univision forum in Florida moderated by Mexican journalist Enrique Acevedo. Trump has made inroads with Hispanic voters, but Vice President Kamala Harris still has an advantage — albeit slimmer than Joe Biden’s in 2020 — with that demographic.
Harris, who appeared at her own Univision town hall last week, has repeatedly ripped Trump over the claims about Haitians, saying at a discussion hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in September that the former president is “spewing lies grounded in tropes.”
The right-wing misinformation about Haitian people now living in Springfield — legally under Temporary Protected Status — has become a staple of Trump’s dark and often misleading message on immigration. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has also doubled and tripled down on the conspiracy theories — over the objections of his home state’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, along with the city’s mayor and police chief.
Read more about what Trump said.
Meanwhile in Trump’s subversion election case, Fulton County DA asks that 3 charges against him be restored
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked the state’s Court of Appeals to reinstate six counts in the election subversion case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, including three specifically against the former president.
The court filing brings the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, and the effort to overturn his election defeat, back into the spotlight as early voting begins in Georgia in the 2024 election.
In March, Judge Scott McAfee ruled that six charges in the 41-count indictment related to Trump and some co-defendants over the alleged solicitation of the violation of oath by a public officer lacked the required detail about what underlying crime the defendants were soliciting.
The counts relate to Trump and his co-defendants’ alleged efforts to have state officials appoint a fake slate of electors for the state following his loss in the 2020 election.
In his March decision, McAfee wrote that Willis failed to give the defendants “enough information” to prepare their defenses.
Despite throwing out the charges, McAfee said the alleged conduct that was the foundation of that charge could still be used by prosecutors as part of the Georgia racketeering case.
Willis on Tuesday responded, arguing to the appeals court that the indictment against Trump and others had plenty of information that would allow defendants to sufficiently prepare for their case.
Separately, the Georgia appeals court is also considering an effort from Trump and his co-defendants to disqualify Willis from prosecuting her 2020 election subversion case because of alleged conflicts from her romantic relationship with her former special prosecutor.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Read more about Trump’s criminal cases here.
Voters confront Trump about potential effects of deporting undocumented immigrants
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday was confronted by a farmer at a Univision town hall about the potential effects of the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants Trump has vowed to carry out if reelected.
Trump was asked, “For many years, I have worked with these hands hunched over picking strawberries and cutting broccoli. This tough job is mainly done by undocumented people. If you deport these people, who would do that job, and what price would we pay for food?”
The former president argued “farmers are doing very badly right now” and said Hispanic and African Americans are “losing jobs now because millions of people are coming in.” He again claimed undocumented immigrants coming across the border are “murderers, drug dealers, terrorists.”
“We want workers, and we want them to come in, but they have to come in legally. They have to love our country. They have to love you, love our people,” Trump said.
Trump later dodged a question from another voter about why he helped torpedo a bipartisan border bill that included measures that would’ve amounted to some of the most significant changes in US immigration policy in decades.
“We had the strongest border we’ve ever had in the history, recorded history of our country. We had four years ago, we had a border that was great. And again, people were coming in, but they were coming in through a legal process,” Trump said.
The town hall with Latino voters, which was taped earlier today, will air on Univision tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
Federal judge orders Alabama to reverse program that purged more than 3,000 names from voter rolls
A federal judge ordered Alabama’s Republican secretary of state on Wednesday to reverse a program that purged more than 3,000 names from the state’s voter rolls, agreeing with the Biden administration’s argument that the purge took place too close to the election.
Manasco, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, added that Allen “admitted” that his purge program “included thousands of United States citizens (in addition to far fewer noncitizens, who are ineligible to vote).” He also said the secretary of state referred all of the individuals to the state’s attorney general for criminal investigation.
The ruling is a major victory for the US Justice Department and several voters in the state who sued Allen last month, alleging he unlawfully removed 3,251 names from the state’s registration lists. It comes as Republicans continue to make noncitizen voting a major issue ahead of the 2024 election, even though voting in US elections by noncitizens is illegal and exceedingly rare.
Manasco said the injunction will expire after the 2024 election.
CNN has reached out to Allen’s office for comment.
New presidential race polls find no clear leader in North Carolina and Trump with advantage in Georgia
A new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday afternoon finds likely voters in battleground North Carolina closely split between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, with 49% backing Harris and 47% backing Trump. In the key swing state of Georgia, Quinnipiac finds Trump leading Harris, 52% to 45%.
Although recent polling has been relatively sparse in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which affected parts of both states, Quinnipiac’s polling in Georgia this fall has consistently shown wider margins for Trump than other pollsters have found.
More about the polls: Trump has led Harris by margins of four to seven points in all three Quinnipiac polls of Georgia released since the beginning of September, while other surveys over that time have shown a closer race. Surveys of the presidential race in North Carolina —including those conducted by both Quinnipiac and other pollsters —have consistently found a very tight race in the state.
CNN Poll of Polls averages of presidential election polling in Georgia and North Carolina find no clear leader in either state. In Georgia, Trump averages 50% support to Harris’ 48% among likely voters. In North Carolina, Trump takes an average 49% to Harris’ 48% among likely voters. Both averages are unchanged from earlier this month.
Asked about virtues he sees in Harris, Trump says she seems to “have a nice way about her” and “be a survivor”
Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he thought Vice President Kamala Harris “seems to have a nice way about her” and “does seem to be a survivor,” when asked at a town hall with Latino voters about what virtues he sees in his opponent.
Trump was asked by a voter at a Univision town hall in Miami what three virtues he saw in Harris, and he initially briefly paused and said, “That’s a very hard question. That’s the toughest question. The other ones are easy.”
“Look, I’m not a fan. I’m not a fan. I think she’s harmed our country horribly, horribly at the border, with inflation, with so many other things,” Trump started off in his response.
Trump also said, “And she seems to have a nice way about her. I mean, I like the way, you know, some of her statements, some of her, the way she behaves, in a certain way, but in another way, I think it’s very bad for our country, very bad for our country.”
“But she does seem to have some relationships that be lasting, and she does seem to be a survivor,” Trump said.
The town hall, which was taped earlier today, will air on Univision tonight at 10 p.m. ET.
Presidential ad spending: Democrats have big lead in Michigan as GOP seizes edge in Pennsylvania
Overall, since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee, Democrats have outspent Republicans on advertising by a wide margin, $921 million to $569 million.
A significant part of Democrats’ overall edge is their advantage in both national advertising and digital advertising — Harris and her allies have outspent the GOP by more than $50 million by each metric (some digital advertising is national, some national advertising is digital, but not all digital ads run nationally, and not all national ads run digitally).
In the key battleground states, the advertising contest has been closer, and Republicans are poised to seize the edge on the airwaves in a few critical states in the closing weeks of the race.
Here’s a look at some key takeaways on ad spending:
- Democrats have established a massive advertising lead in Michigan, running more than $51 million more worth of ads there compared to Republicans since Biden dropped out.
- Democrats have also outspent Republicans in Pennsylvania by a wide margin, about $37 million, between July 22 and October 15.
- During the first two weeks of October, however, Republicans seized the advantage in Pennsylvania, outspending Democrats by about $1.2 million in the commonwealth.
- And Republicans are poised to maintain their slight advantage in Pennsylvania, with about $35 million in remaining ad bookings, compared to $34 million for Democrats.
- The parties have been running about even in Wisconsin in October, each side spending about $14 million advertising there.
- Democrats are pouring resources into North Carolina so far in October — during the first two weeks, Harris and her allies have outspent Trump and his allies by $12 million there.
- Democrats are also set to outspend Republicans in Georgia by more than $12 million the rest of the way, getting a big lift from the leading pro-Harris super PAC, FF PAC.
- And Democrats blitzed Republicans in Nebraska in the two and a half months since Harris became the nominee, and they appear comfortable with their work there – the state is set to see less than $1 million worth of presidential advertising through Election Day.
Fact check: Trump makes at least 19 false claims in hourlong Fox town hall with women
Former President Donald Trump, who trails with women in recent national polls, participated in a Fox News town hall event on Tuesday in front of a female audience.
The Republican presidential nominee made at least 19 false claims in the one-hour event that aired Wednesday morning.
Here is a fact check on a few of the false claims Trump made:
Opinions on Roe v. Wade: Trump repeated his false claim that “everybody” wanted the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision overturned and the power to set abortion policy left to individual states. Trump added, “Nobody wanted it to be in the federal government.”
It’s not even close to true that “everybody” wanted Roe overturned or that “the Democrats” did. A large majority of Americans and an overwhelming majority of Democrats wanted the Supreme Court to preserve Roe in 2022, according to numerous polls. Democratic support for Roe exceeded 80% in many polls and 90% in some polls.
Trump and in vitro fertilization (IVF): Trump declared that he is entirely in favor of IVF. But Trump also falsely claimed, “I’m the father of IVF.” The first child conceived through IVF was born in 1978; Trump, clearly, had nothing to do with it, and he said in this same town hall answer that he only recently had IVF explained to him by a Republican senator.
Harris’ border role: Trump, criticizing his election opponent Vice President Kamala Harris, repeated his false claim that President Joe Biden “made her border czar.” Biden never made Harris “border czar,” a label the White House has always emphasized is inaccurate. In reality, Biden gave Harris a more limited immigration-related assignment in 2021, asking her to lead diplomacy with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in an attempt to address the conditions that prompted their citizens to try to migrate to the United States.
Continue reading more on this fact check.
Harris says she found Trump’s “father of IVF” comment to be “quite bizarre”
Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday railed against former President Donald Trump for suggesting he is the “father of IVF.” Trump made the comments during a Fox News town hall with an all-women audience.
She continued, “What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working toward growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk.”
Though it’s unclear what the former president meant when he made the comment, the event he was speaking at on Tuesday was billed as focusing on women’s issues. Trump has repeatedly talked up his support for in-vitro fertilization on the campaign trail, where he has given a series of confusing or contradictory answers about his stance on abortion.
The vice president urged people to “not be distracted” by Trump’s choice of words. “The reality is his actions have been harmful to women and families on this issue,” Harris said.
Watch the moment here:
Young voter voices: Why one college student says she felt like she had to go back to school
After graduating from high school in 2017, N’Dea Gordon entered the workforce. Deterred by the high cost of college and the prospect of thousands of dollars in student loans, her plan was to work her way up in the service industry, get promotions and gain skills that could help her build a career.
But years went by, and the wages didn’t go up, leaving her with only one option: She had to go back to school and hope the investment would pay off.
Gordon, 25, lives in Columbus, Ohio, and is in her first year of a cybersecurity program at Western Governors University, an online school. She said the economy is the issue that is most important to her this election and is a main factor in how she will vote.
As a student, she feels the pinch of rising food prices and the cost of housing and rent, which she said have gone up an “exorbitant amount” for her in the past year. She has been struggling to find even a studio apartment she can afford, she said.
Gordon said she also wants to see more transparency in job creation. When politicians say they are creating jobs, she wants to know what the barrier to entry is for those positions, adding that she hopes to see a wide range of jobs for people with different skill levels.
How other young voters are weighing the issue of the economy:
Former President Jimmy Carter cast his vote in 2024 election, spokesperson says
Former President Jimmy Carter has cast his vote in the 2024 presidential election, a spokesperson for the Carter Center confirms to CNN.
Carter, the oldest living US president, cast his ballot by mail on Wednesday, according to spokesperson Matthew De Galan.
In August, Carter’s grandson said the former president was hoping to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during the November elections.
“I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” the 99-year-old former president said, according to his grandson, Jason Carter, who relayed a conversation Carter had with his son Chip to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
More on the former president: Carter, who turned 100 on October 1, entered hospice care in February 2023 after a series of hospital stays. Jason Carter said in May the 39th president is “coming to an end” when providing an update on his health.
Carter, a Democrat and one-term president, is a survivor of metastatic brain cancer and liver cancer and underwent a brain surgery after a fall in 2019. The former president is widely revered for his championing of human rights and brokering the Camp David Accords in 1978 between Egypt and Israel.
This post has been updated with more background.
CNN’s Joe Sutton and Kaanita Iyer contributed reporting to this post.
Elon Musk says he’s giving a series of talks in Pennsylvania as he boosts Trump
Elon Musk says he’ll be “giving a series of talks throughout Pennsylvania” from Wednesday through Monday to promote former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Pennsylvania is a critical battleground state and Musk is an ardent Trump supporter who has given nearly $75 million to a pro-Trump super PAC, according to new FEC filings.
Special counsel urges federal judge to ignore Trump’s immunity claims
Special counsel Jack Smith urged a federal judge to ignore former President Donald Trump’s claims of presidential immunity, calling them “deeply flawed” and “irrelevant” to the issue at hand and should wait to be argued in separate filings.
Trump has been charged with multiple counts related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction.
Smith also told the judge on Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s decision limiting some obstruction charges against those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, should not apply to Trump in the election subversion case against the former president.
One primary reason the obstruction charge against Trump should stand, prosecutors argue, is that – unlike in the case involving a rioter that was before the Supreme Court – Trump is directly accused of creating false evidence though the plot to insert fake electors in the certification process.
Additionally, the special counsel said in a court filing, Trump’s pressure campaign against then-Vice President Mike Pence and other legislators to certify fraudulent electoral college votes “link the defendant’s actions on January 6 directly to his efforts to corruptly obstruct the certification proceeding.”
Remember: Earlier this year, the Supreme Court found that obstruction charges brought by prosecutors against many alleged rioters could not stand unless the individual obstructed the Electoral College certification proceeding by impairing physical documents and other similar and direct acts of obstruction.
Trump is arguing the ruling should result in Judge Tanya Chutkan throwing out the case against him.
“The defendant’s supplement ignores entirely that the superseding indictment includes allegations that involve the creation of false evidence,” prosecutors wrote Wednesday, namely, “the fraudulent electoral certificates.”
Children who were separated from parents under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy speak at Harris-Walz event
The Harris-Walz campaign on Wednesday held a news conference in Florida, featuring several children who came to the United States from Central America and were forcibly separated from their parents under the Trump administration, ahead of the former President Donald Trump’s Univision town hall with Latino voters on Univision.
“As a nine-year-old, you can probably imagine how that felt — great sadness in front of me, and very traumatic, something that I still hold to this day. The emptiness that I felt when I, when they told me that I wasn’t going to be able to be able to see my family again was something out of this world, and something that no kids should go through,” he said, adding that he was separated from his father for 40 days.
Billy added, “I still have the fear of Trump being reelected, and that same thing happening to me or other kids ever again.”
Thirteen-year-old Adriana spoke of how she and her mother were separated. “I started crying. Me and mama started crying because we thought we were never gonna see each other again.”
More background: In 2018, the Trump administration’s so-called “zero tolerance” policy criminally prosecuted adults illegally crossing the border — resulting in adults being sent to jail while their children were sent to detention centers run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Kevin Munoz, the senior spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign, said that during the town hall with Latino voters in Doral, Trump “will pretend he cares about our families, but the stories you will hear today remind you just how far from the truth that is.”
“If Trump gets the chance again, he will be more dangerous,” Munoz said.
For privacy reasons, the campaign did not provide the last names or the countries of birth of the children who spoke.
Fact check: Trump claims John Deere dropped plans for Mexico plant after tariff threat. Company says no
When former President Donald Trump was challenged at a Tuesday event about the potential economic harms of his proposal for across-the-board tariffs on imported goods, Trump told what sounded like a tariff success story.
He said that in response to his threat to impose hefty tariffs on John Deere if the storied American farm equipment maker went ahead with a plan to move some production from the US to Mexico, the company had just announced it was likely abandoning that outsourcing plan.
Here’s what Trump said: “Are you ready? John Deere, great company. They announced about a year ago they’re gonna build big plants outside of the United States. Right? They’re going to build them in Mexico … I said, ‘If John Deere builds those plants, they’re not selling anything into the United States.’ They just announced yesterday they’re probably not going to build the plants, OK? I kept the jobs here.”
Fact check: But a search of news articles and corporate press releases showed nothing about any such John Deere announcement the day prior. And in response to Trump’s story, a John Deere spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News that it had not changed its plans or announced any such changes.
The Trump campaign did not respond to a CNN request for any evidence for the former president’s story.
Analysis: Replace the word “tariff” with taxes — that’s what Trump is pitching to Americans
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday was interviewed by Bloomberg at the Economic Club of Chicago, where he once again touted historic tariffs as a way to grow America’s manufacturing sector by making foreign countries foot the bill.
But, given the economy’s central importance in the 2024 race, it’s worth hammering on an Econ 101 fact: Tariffs are a tax on Americans.
Trouble is, a lot of people don’t seem to get this — including Trump, who, CNN has reported, has falsely and repeatedly claimed that China would pay for tariffs he imposes.
It’s just not how trade works — not now, not ever.
Very simply: When the US government decides to put a tariff (read: tax) on, say, Chinese goods, the actual money going to the US Treasury comes from the American company doing the importing. And for that company to stay in business, it needs to make up that cost somewhere else, and that typically means raising prices on its consumers.
New York House races become a fight to define the middle
In the fight for control of the House this fall, a trio of New York Republican lawmakers are pitching themselves as moderates willing to stand up to their own party as they aim to prove their wins in Democratic-leaning districts two years ago were not a fluke.
GOP Reps. Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro and Anthony D’Esposito framed themselves in recent conversations with CNN as moderate and bipartisan, exposing the metrics with which the new battleground taking shape in the Empire State are measured: a race for the middle.
But it’s a tightrope. The three freshmen lawmakers support former President Donald Trump in districts President Joe Biden won in 2020. Their first terms have been defined by a historically unproductive Congress. And they’ve at times embraced the right-wing rhetoric of their party, particularly when it comes to immigration and border security.
It’s here in New York, particularly in the suburbs of central New York, the Hudson Valley and Long Island, where the balance of power for the House of Representatives will likely be decided, and it’s through these competitive races where red cracks in the state’s reputation as a blue fortress are becoming more exposed.
Biden faces delicate balancing act as he campaigns for Harris: “Every president has to cut their own path”
President Joe Biden acknowledged on Tuesday that Kamala Harris wouldn’t act as a carbon copy of his own administration, tacitly nodding to a key challenge his vice president faces as she enters the final sprint of her campaign: How to distinguish herself from his record.
Delivered during what has become a rare campaign stop for the incumbent, Biden said Harris’ loyalty to him — up to now — doesn’t mean she won’t forge her own way going ahead.
“Donald Trump’s perspective,” he added, “is old and failed and quite frankly thoroughly totally dishonest.”
The comments highlight part of the balancing act Biden and Harris are each trying to strike as she faces some pressure to distinguish herself from the current president.
After declaring in September he would be “on the road” from Labor Day onward, Biden’s campaign schedule this fall has been conspicuously light — hampered, in part, by a string of urgent domestic and foreign crises requiring his attention, but also complicated by the sense that his presence on the trail could remind voters of the page Harris is trying to turn.
The event on Tuesday — a ticketed dinner to raise money for Philadelphia Democrats — was one of the few political appearances the president has made since Harris secured the Democratic nomination.
“I’m one of the few people in American history who has been vice president and president,” Biden said as he stood before signs bearing the name “Kamala.”
“And I know both jobs, what they take and I can tell you, Kamala Harris has been a great vice president. She’ll be a great president as well,” he said.
Less than three weeks until the election, the campaign and White House have yet to detail what Biden’s campaign schedule will look like in the lead up to November 5. One deployment under consideration, a source close to the campaign said, is a tour through Pennsylvania with the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro. Biden himself previewed such a swing weeks ago in an interview.
Read more about Biden’s role in campaigning for Harris ahead of Election Day.
Analysis: Trump embraces the “weave,” while Harris heads to Fox
Donald Trump is trying to bob and weave his way back to power while Kamala Harris is finally daring to ditch the script as Democrats fret about her campaign.
The Republican and Democratic nominees on Tuesday offered voters an unusually self-reflective glimpse into their characters as they pursued dwindling bands of undecided voters in their neck-and-neck race that’s coming down to the wire.
Trump, fresh off a bizarre half-hour at a town hall on Monday when he danced on stage to his campaign soundtrack, made a clumsy attempt to repair his damaged standing among female voters. “I’m the father of IVF,” said the former president whose conservative Supreme Court majority unleashed chaos in reproductive health care.
And in a testy appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago, he made a virtue of his frequent incoherence, styling it as a sophisticated “weave” of multiple ideas that only a political genius would attempt. And he tried a fresh reinvention of history over his attempt to steal the 2020 election, declaring that his crowd in Washington on January 6, 2021, was infused with “love and peace.”
Harris also sought a second chance among a key voting bloc that is cool on her campaign. As she seeks to become the first Black woman president, she courted Black male voters who were last week rebuked by former President Barack Obama for flirting with Trump.
In an interview with radio host Charlamagne Tha God, the vice president further sharpened her attacks on her rival, branding him as “weak” because he cozies up to dictators and agreeing with the host that his political creed equated to “fascism.”
Musk and other billionaires have invested staggering sums into electing Trump. Here’s a look at the numbers
Some of the world’s wealthiest figures – led by conservative donor Miriam Adelson and tech billionaire Elon Musk – have funneled tens of millions of dollars into political groups in recent months to boost Donald Trump’s White House bid, new reports filed Tuesday with federal regulators show.
Musk, the world’s richest person, gave nearly $75 million to a pro-Trump super PAC that he helped form over the summer – a massive cash infusion aimed at helping turn out voters in key battleground states.
Adelson, a staunch Trump backer and heir to a casino fortune, gave even more, plowing $95 million into another outside group backing the former president, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission covering the three months ended September 30.
Altogether, just three billionaires – Musk, Adelson and Midwestern packaging magnate Richard Uihlein – donated roughly $220 million in a three-month period to groups backing the Republican’s candidacy.
Their staggering donations underscore the crucial role that a handful of billionaire megadonors are playing in Trump’s efforts to edge past his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, as their race has intensified.
Here’s where the candidates and their running mates will be today
It is another busy day on the campaign trail, with the candidates criss-crossing multiple states as they race to make their final pitches to voters with just 20 days until Election Day.
Kamala Harris: The vice president will sit down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday for her first-ever interview on the right-wing cable network. The interview with the Democratic presidential nominee will take place in Pennsylvania and air during the “Special Report with Bret Baier” at 6 p.m. ET, the network said Monday.
Harris will also campaign in Bucks County, Pennsylvania today, focusing on patriotism and unity. The vice president will be joined by more than 100 Republicans supporting her over the former president in a bipartisan effort to prioritize country over party ahead of Election Day.
Donald Trump: Earlier today, Fox News aired a pre-taped town hall with the former president from Cumming, Georgia. The event was hosted by Harris Faulkner for “The Faulkner Focus” before an audience of all women and focused on “issues impacting women ahead of the election and news of the day,” the network said.
Later on Wednesday, Trump will participate in a town hall moderated by Univision in Miami as the former president looks to court Latino Voters. This was previously postponed due to the impact of Hurricane Milton in Florida the week prior. Harris participated in a Univision town hall last week.
Gov. Tim Walz: The Democratic vice presidential candidate will deliver remarks at a series of campaign receptions in the Washington, DC, area.
Sen. JD Vance: The Republican vice presidential candidate will deliver remarks at a campaign event in Scranton, Pennslyvania, on Wednesday before holding a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Faith & Freedom Coalition chair Ralph Reed says he’s “very comfortable” with Trump’s IVF comments
The leader of a powerful conservative evangelical political advocacy group — Ralph Reed of the Faith & Freedom Coalition — told CNN’s Kasie Hunt in an exclusive interview that he’s “very comfortable” with Donald Trump’s position on abortion and the former president’s recent comments declaring himself the “father of IVF.”
Pressed on Trump ultimately declaring he would veto a federal abortion ban earlier this month after waffling on the question, the Faith & Freedom Coalition chair pointed to the political challenges of passing such legislation in the first place.
“In terms of the national abortion law, we certainly favor that and we would wish that any president would sign it, but the reality is you need 60 votes in the Senate,” Reed said. “And that’s not likely to happen in the short-term.”
Reed labeled Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ abortion agenda “radical” and “extreme” — claiming that she wants to go beyond Roe v. Wade and provide taxpayer-funded abortions with no restrictions.
“For these voters of faith, Kasie, the contrast could not be sharper, could not be more dramatic and that’s why I think they’re coming and they’re going to come in record numbers,” he said.
What to know about early voting in 2 key battleground states
Two critical battleground states are kicking off early in-person voting this week. Georgia already saw a record number of early voters on Tuesday and people in North Carolina will have the option to cast their ballots early starting Thursday.
But, between a flurry of legislative changes and the fallout from Hurricane Helene, the experience could look different for many voters in the coming weeks.
Here’s what to know about how voting and elections will work in Georgia and North Carolina.
Georgia:
- Fewer drop boxes but more ways to vote early: New state laws after 2020 that tightened rules for absentee ballots and cracked down on the availability of drop boxes may make the option less appealing than early in-person voting, election experts said. Meanwhile, the opportunities to vote early in person have expanded. Georgia law mandates two Saturdays of early voting and allows for two Sundays of early voting if a county desires.
- Limits on feeding people in line: A 2021 law that makes it a crime to offer food or drinks to voters waiting to cast a ballot – which was highly publicized by news outlets and immortalized by comedian Larry David in episodes of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” – mostly survived legal challenges. So, offering a bottle of water or a snack to voters within 150 feet of a building where ballots are being cast is still banned.
- Hoping to speed up results but worries about uncertainty: At 8 p.m. ET on election night, counties are required to report results from their early in-person and absentee ballots. As counties tabulate the Election Day vote, they’ll provide updates at regular intervals. The goal, according to Georgia’s secretary of state, is to provide speedy, fair and transparent results.
North Carolina:
- Impact of Hurricane Helene damage: The North Carolina State Board of Elections website has updates about relocated polling places, how constituents can vote if they lost their identification in the storm and how displaced voters can request new absentee ballots. When it comes to early voting sites, the 25 western counties most impacted by Helene had planned for 80 early voting sites. Seventy-five of them will be operational when early voting begins.
- No more grace period for mail ballots: Voters considering casting a ballot by mail should note that, unlike 2020, their ballots need to be received by 7:30 p.m. ET on Election Day. During the last presidential race, there was a three-day grace period for ballots to arrive, which has since been eliminated.
- New voter ID rules: This is the first presidential election where residents of the Tar Heel State will be required to present identification when they show up to vote. Acceptable forms of ID include a driver’s license, passport and student photo IDs that have been approved by the state election board.
Michelle Obama headlining voter turnout rally in Atlanta later this month
Former first lady Michelle Obama will headline a rally aimed at boosting voter turnout in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 29, marking one of her first public efforts on the campaign trail this election cycle.
The event is being coordinated through “When We All Vote,” a non-partisan organization Obama started in 2018 to work on voter engagement, and is geared towards mobilizing first-time voters, including college and high school students, in this election. It is taking place just before the end of early voting in Georgia on November 1.
It comes months after Obama’s high-profile speech at the Democratic National Convention when she encouraged voters to “to do something” in this election as she made the case for electing Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris will speak on patriotism, unity and the Constitution in Pennsylvania today
Vice President Kamala Harris will campaign in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, today where she will center her remarks on patriotism, uniting the nation and upholding the Constitution as she continues to draw a contrast with Donald Trump, according to a campaign official.
Harris will be joined by more than 100 Republicans who are backing her candidacy over the former president, in a bipartisan effort to call for putting country above party ahead of Election Day.
According to the campaign, in her remarks, the vice president plans to blast Trump for refusing to engage in the peaceful transfer of power in 2020 and previously calling for the termination of the Constitution to overturn the election. She will also warn of the threat a second Trump term poses as she again slams her rival for his comment that the US military should handle “the enemy from within.”
Harris, the official said, will urge Republicans who have democratic values to rally behind her in an effort to move past Trump’s chaos.
The event, the campaign noted, will take place in Washington Crossing, at a location not far from where George Washington and troops crossed the Delaware River in 1776, which marked a major turning point in the American Revolution.
Among the Republicans joining Harris include former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and several former Trump aides.
National CNN Poll of Polls shows no clear leader in presidential race
A new CNN Poll of Polls average of national polling, released Wednesday morning, continues to find no clear leader in the presidential race, with an average of 51% of likely voters supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and 48% backing former President Donald Trump.
Of the four surveys included in the average, two give Harris a slight edge over Trump, while the other two show an effectively deadlocked race. A Marquette Law School poll released Wednesday finds likely voters split 50-50 when pushed to choose between the two candidates in a head-to-head race.
The Marquette poll finds that registered voters are more likely to describe Trump than Harris as having a strong record of accomplishments (53% say this describes Trump at least somewhat well, compared with 43% who feel it describes Harris), but are also more likely to say he has behaved corruptly (61% Trump, 38% Harris) and is too old to be president (59% Trump, 13% Harris).
Both Harris and Trump are seen by most registered voters as strong leaders.
A Marist College poll also released Wednesday finds Harris taking 52% to Trump’s 47% among likely voters in a head-to-head matchup.
Cruz and Allred’s spirited debate focused on abortion, border security and transgender policy
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and his Democratic challenger Rep. Colin Allred faced off in their first Senate debate on Tuesday night, going after one another on abortion, border security, transgender policy and policy toward Israel.
Allred attempted to paint Cruz as “extreme” and and slammed the Texas senator for his Cancun trip in 2021 amid a winter disaster hitting his home state.
Cruz, who’s seeking his third term, tried tying Allred to Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing the congressman of avoiding his record, and of wanting to change Texas.
Abortion: Cruz said that he believes that “the way we resolve questions like that” is at the ballot box.
Allred accused Cruz of lying about his position on abortion and said that he trusts “Texas women to make their own health care decisions.” He vowed, if elected, he would help make Roe v. Wade law of the land again.
Border security: Allred was pressed on his past comments calling former President Donald Trump’s border wall racist and why the change in his position in later backing President Joe Biden’s plans to expand the border wall.
Transgender athletes in sports: “I don’t support boys playing girls sports. I don’t,” Allred later said. “What I think is that folks should not be discriminated against.”
Trump says he is “father of IVF” at town hall with all-women audience
Donald Trump on Tuesday declared himself the “father of IVF,” a fertility treatment that has come under threat following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
It’s unclear what precisely the former president meant when he made the comment at a Fox News town hall on “The Faulkner Focus” in battleground Georgia that was billed as focusing on women’s issues and had an all-female audience. But he has repeatedly returned to the issue – talking up his support for IVF – on the campaign trail, where he has given a long series of confusing or contradictory answers about his stance on abortion.
In vitro fertilization, an expensive, decades-old treatment used by millions of parents, became a flashpoint in the nationwide clash over abortion and reproductive rights earlier this year when Alabama’s Supreme Court said that frozen embryos are children and those who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death.
The Alabama ruling infuriated reproductive rights advocates who reasoned it would have a chilling effect on IVF, scaring off doctors who perform the procedure and sending prices even higher. It also set off a political firestorm that ultimately sent the state’s Republican-led Legislature scrambling to pass a bill giving civil and criminal immunity to providers and patients.
Get caught up on the top campaign headlines you might have missed
Early voting is kicking off this week in two critical battleground states as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump make their final pitch to voters.
Here are some headlines you might have missed from Tuesday:
- Harris participated in an hour-long radio town hall hosted by syndicated radio co-host Charlamagne tha God in Detroit, Michigan where she brushed off criticism that she comes off as “very scripted.”
- At an interview at the Chicago Economic Club with Bloomberg, Trump didn’t say whether he had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office in 2021 and defended his plan to implement steep tariffs on companies that don’t produce their goods domestically.
- At a town hall focused on women’s issues on Fox News, Trump said he thinks some state abortion restrictions are “too tough” and that they are “going to be redone.” He also called himself the “father of IVF” and he defended his recent remarks suggesting using the military to handle what he called “the enemy from within” on Election Day
- Two former presidents will campaign separately with Gov. Tim Walz in the next week. Bill Clinton will join the Democratic vice presidential candidate at an event in Durham, North Carolina, on Thursday, and Barack Obama will appear with Walz in Madison, Wisconsin, on Tuesday, the campaign said.
- Georgia is shattering its record for early voting turnout on Tuesday, according to Georgia’s Secretary of State office. Election officials also said absentee ballots went out by the US Postal Service as scheduled and were not impacted by the hurricanes.
- What’s coming up today: Harris will sit down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday for her first-ever interview on the right-wing cable network. It will air at 6 p.m. ET. A few hours later, Fox News will air a pre-taped town hall with Trump from Cumming, Georgia, at 11 a.m. ET. Later on Wednesday, Trump will participate in a town hall moderated by Univision in Miami.
