The Harris campaign is planning additional appearance with Liz Cheney, source says

Harris campaign officials are planning a fireside chat or town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney as part of a continued push to reach disaffected Republicans in the closing weeks of the election, according to a source familiar with discussions.

The Harris campaign has been doubling down on outreach to GOP voters in battleground states who they believe are turned off by former President Donald Trump. That has included visiting red and rural counties that previously voted for Trump and joint campaign events with Republicans, casting her candidacy as “country over party.”

Planning for such an event is still underway, but would likely include a Republican moderator, according to the source.

CNN reached out to the Harris campaign and Cheney’s team for comment.

Some background: Earlier this month, Cheney and Harris appeared together at a campaign rally in Ripon, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the Republican party, where the vice president made a direct appeal to Republican and independent voters. Cheney said then she was “proudly” casting her vote for Harris, invoking the events of January 6, 2021.

Cheney’s opposition to Trump and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election — including her vote to impeach him — eventually led the House GOP to oust her as conference chair and replace her with a top Trump ally, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik. Cheney went on to serve as vice chair of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Harris draws contrast with Trump’s record with manufacturing and auto industries

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday attacked Donald Trump’s track record on the auto industry as she tried to appeal to Michigan voters in Grand Rapids on Friday.

During her remarks, Harris pledged to invest in manufacturing communities and work with union workers as she drew contrast with the former president. She attacked the former president’s history with the manufacturing and auto industries and argued Trump “makes big promises and he always fails to deliver.”

If she is president, Harris promised that she would “invest in the industries that built America, like steel, iron and the great American auto industry, and we will ensure that the next generation of breakthroughs, from advanced batteries to electric vehicles are not just invented, but built right here in America by American union workers.”

“Thousands of Michigan auto workers lost their jobs, and Donald Trump’s running mate recently suggested that if they win, they would threaten the Grand River assembly plant in Lansing,” Harris told the crowd. “The same plant our administration protected earlier this year, saving 650 union jobs.”

She also continued to criticize Trump for “ducking debates” and “canceling interviews” as she questioned his fitness to be the next commander-in-chief.

The vice president was referring to a recent report from Politico which quoted anonymous sources saying that Trump has backed out of negotiations for recent interviews citing exhaustion.

Bill Clinton returns to the campaign trail with a focus on rural towns

As Bill Clinton hits the campaign trail for Kamala Harris in the final weeks of the 2024 election, the former president has been clear with the vice president’s team where he most wants to be deployed to: Small, rural American towns that are not used to seeing surrogates — let alone a former president — pass through.

That mandate from Clinton has been on clear display in the first few days of his time on the trail, when his initial stops included towns like Columbus and Albany in Georgia — a state that the Democratic ex-president won in 1992 (a feat President Joe Biden would repeat in 2020). A part of Clinton’s four-day bus tour will take him through small towns in eastern North Carolina on Friday.

“I don’t think any of these other surrogates are jumping up and down and saying ‘send me to Albany or Columbus,’” the person said.

Clinton, famously fond of retail politics, has made clear to the Harris campaign that if he could win over some voters in towns where a political rally might draw 75 to 250 people — rather than the several thousand that might attend a rally featuring Harris or her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz — ultimately, “those small pockets start to add up.”

The campaign is also leaning on Clinton’s visits to these less-visited areas to translate to wall-to-wall local coverage in secondary media markets.

Here's a look at Michigan's latest pre-election voting data as Harris and Trump campaign in the state today

Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are campaigning in Michigan today, where more than 944,000 ballots have been cast so far, according to data from the Michigan Secretary of State.

The former president starts the day in Auburn Hills before a rally later in Detroit. The vice president is expected to deliver remarks in Grand Rapids and Lansing before a campaign event in Oakland County.

All the votes cast in Michigan at this point are mail-in ballots. In-person early voting will be available throughout the entire state starting October 26, although some places, including Detroit will begin Saturday.

Voter data: The racial makeup of the pre-election electorate in Michigan is very similar to what it was at this point four years ago, according to the ballots for which Catalist has data. White voters make up 83% of ballots cast so far in the state, while Black voters have cast 12% of ballots.

Latino and Asian voters in the Great Lakes State are trending at about the same number of ballots cast so far compared to the last election at 2%.

Ballots cast among older voters have increased since 2020, according to Catalist’s data. Voters 65 and older make up 62% of the vote so far, compared to 51% at this point four years ago. The share of ballots from 50 to 64 year olds ticked down, from 26% in 2020 to 20% so far.

A key state: Both campaigns are keenly aware of how a win in Michigan, a traditional “Blue Wall” state, could change the electoral map. Although the state went for Joe Biden by around 154,000 votes in 2020, it also delivered Trump a historic win when he defeated Hillary Clinton by less than 11,000 votes, breaking a streak of Democratic wins there since 1992.

Further context: Catalist is a company that provides data, analytics and other services to Democrats, academics and nonprofit advocacy groups, including insights into who is voting before November.

Special counsel Jack Smith releases massive trove of documents in Trump's 2020 election subversion case

Special counsel Jack Smith on Friday released a massive trove of heavily redacted documents in his 2020 election subversion criminal case against former President Donald Trump.

A team of CNN reporters is reviewing the documents and will provide the latest updates here.

The hefty, yet redacted, appendices filed on the public docket in the case are related to Smith’s expansive filing from earlier this month that laid out his fullest picture yet of the case against Trump and why his actions around the 2020 election should not be shielded by presidential immunity.

The files are expected to include an array of materials, including grand jury transcripts and notes from FBI interviews conducted during the yearslong investigation.

The documents were released a day after Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected a bid by Trump to pause the release. Trump argued that posting the documents now could be seen as election inference and had asked them to remain under seal until after Election Day.

More about the case: Prosecutors have charged Trump with four crimes stemming from his actions following his 2020 election loss, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction. Trump has pleaded not guilty.

In a blockbuster ruling this summer, the Supreme Court said that Trump enjoys partial presidential immunity for alleged crimes he committed while in office. Chutkan must now decide how to apply that ruling to the conduct at issue in the case.

Remember: This is one of four criminal cases Trump is facing while running again for president.

Warnock says "waves" of Black men won't vote for Trump, but "the real thing we gotta address is apathy"

Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock continued to cast doubt on former President Donald Trump’s ability to win over Black men, but warned against voter apathy during a campaign stop in Michigan on Friday.

“We’re not a monolith, like anybody else. So there’s going to be some, there always been some,” Warnock said, adding, “you will not see waves of black men voting for Donald Trump. The real threat that we face, the real thing that we gotta address is apathy.”

Harris participated in a radio town hall and a local stop in Detroit on Tuesday focused on reaching out to Black male voters. Former President Barack Obama will visit Michigan next week to stump for the Democratic ticket after issuing a stark warning in Pennsylvania to Black men about the potential impact of their inaction.

“I mean, Donald Trump, the man who, early in his real estate career, refused to rent apartments to Black people. You think people want to vote for Donald Trump?” Warnock asked.

The Georgia Senator brought up the Central Park Five to the room of mostly high school students and other members of the community at Cass Technical High School in Detroit. “You don’t remember, you weren’t here. Take my word. I’m old. I was here in 1980. Young men your age were accused of a heinous and horrible crime against a young woman,” he said, describing how Trump took out ads saying the men should face the death penalty.

Campaigning for Rep. Elissa Slotkin, Warnock contrasted the Democratic senate candidate’s record with that of her opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, on a series of issues, including economics, social security and abortion.

Pro-Trump super PAC picks up attacks on Harris’ answer about Biden on "The View"

The leading pro-Trump super PAC launched a pair of new TV ads Friday, one slamming Kamala Harris for her comments on “The View” last week that have also been picked up by the campaign, the other echoing sustained GOP attacks on Harris’ record in law enforcement.

The ad seized on Harris’ answer when she was asked by host Sunny Hostin what she would have done differently than President Joe Biden. Harris answered, “There is not a thing that comes to mind.” It’s the second ad this week that has gone up, with the Trump campaign launching its own version featuring the clip days ago, and quickly putting millions behind it.

The new ad from MAGA Inc., the super PAC, follows the clip with a narrator saying that “Kamala wouldn’t change a thing even though her radical agenda costs American lives,” and ticking through a list of attacks focused on immigration and crime.

Harris’ answer on “The View” was immediately picked up by GOP critics, eager to cement the link between the vice president and the outgoing incumbent, with Biden’s approval rating stuck underwater.

The second new TV ad that MAGA Inc. launched on Friday also reflects pro-Trump advertisers’ sustained focus on immigration and crime, which have been top issues in GOP campaign ads throughout the year. The ad hammers Harris’ record as California Attorney General, which has been repeatedly criticized by Trump allies, with stark warnings about sex offenders and criminals. “Don’t make America Kamala’s next victim,” the ad closes.

Fact check: Debunking Trump’s October lying spree about immigration

Former President Donald Trump is lying about a whole bunch of topics in the final month of the presidential election. But he is lying most frequently, by far, about immigration.

Trump’s October rally speeches and interviews have featured a dizzying barrage of false claims on the subject – about immigrants and crime, about Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on immigration policy, about Trump’s own record on immigration policy and about how foreign countries are supposedly “dumping” their most unwanted citizens into the US.

Here is a fact check of some of the distinct false claims he has made about immigration in the last two weeks alone, some of which he has repeated over and over:

Harris’ border role:

Trump, criticizing Harris, repeatedly claimed that President Joe Biden made her “border czar” and said that “she was in charge of the border.” Biden never made Harris “border czar,” a label the White House has always emphasized is inaccurate, and never put her in charge of border security, a responsibility of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. 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.

Harris’ border visits:

Trump, speaking about Harris and the border, repeated his false claim that “she never even went there.” Harris did go to the border as vice president, in Texas in mid-2021 and then again in Arizona last month; many Republicans had criticized Harris prior to the 2021 visit for not having gone, and some later argued that she didn’t go frequently enough, but the claim that she “never” went has not been true for more than three years.

Harris’ approach to the border:

Trump falsely claimed of Harris: “She was saying the other day, ‘Yes, oh yes, we want to have a border.’ The first time she ever said it. She almost threw up when she said it.” This is nonsense; Harris has never said the US shouldn’t have a border, and it’s not even true that “the other day” was the first time she said the US should have a secure border. For example, she said in a television appearance while running for president in 2019: “We have to have a secure border. But I am in favor of saying that we are not going to treat people who are undocumented and cross the border as criminals.”

Read more about Trump’s claims here.

Rosen and Brown face off in only debate for Nevada Senate race

Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen of Nevada and her GOP challenger Sam Brown faced off on Thursday in their only debate for a pivotal Senate seat.

Here are some of the topics they discussed:

Economy: The candidates were asked about the one specific policy they’d support to lower costs for consumers. Rosen said she would work to lower housing costs and promoted her legislation, the HOME Act, which would direct the federal government to investigate price gouging of residential rental and sale prices. On how she’d lower grocery prices, Rosen said that she’s working with the Federal Trade Commission to hold Kroger to account in its plans to acquire Albertsons.

Brown said the US needs to prioritize cheaper and more efficient energy, arguing that it will drive down costs. He then accused Rosen and Harris of driving up costs with prioritizing energy policies that reward green energy projects.

The candidates were asked about their parties’ standard bearers’ proposals to eliminate tax on workers’ tips and who should qualify for this policy.

“If you’re receiving tips, then you ought to be– not have to pay taxes on those tips,” said Brown. Rosen said that they should start with servers, bartenders and waitresses and address the sub-minimum wage, then we “can also have a discussion and analysis, and see if there other industries that also work heavily in tip.”

Immigration: Brown was pressed on whether he agrees with mass deportations as former President Donald Trump has promised on the campaign trail, and acknowledged it’s a “very big logistical undertaking.”

Rosen did not directly answer whether she believed that the next US president should keep some of the Trump administration immigration policies that were brought back by the Biden administration. She said that the first thing she’d pass is the bipartisan border security agreement that was blocked in Congress earlier this year.

She then criticized Trump’s plans for mass deportations, saying, “How would that happen? Mass deportations? Who would get caught in that? How many innocent people would get rounded up?”

Brown asked to clarify stance on Yucca Mountain: Brown insisted that he hasn’t change his position on the Yucca Mountain nuclear depository when asked about his comments back in 2022 where he suggested that it could be “an incredible opportunity” and another source of revenue for Nevada.

Trump will hold a town hall in Pennsylvania Sunday and a rally in North Carolina Monday

Former President Donald Trump will hold a town hall in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on Sunday and a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, on Monday.

The former president and Vice President Kamala Harris have been criss-crossing key battleground states as Election Day quickly approaches