Live updates: Kamala Harris to deliver Ellipse speech in DC tonight
Live updates: Kamala Harris to deliver Ellipse speech in DC tonight
    Posted on 10/29/2024
Biden takes swipe at Trump while unveiling port infrastructure funding

President Joe Biden unveiled a $3 billion investment in clean port infrastructure Tuesday in Maryland, offering a swipe at former President Donald Trump with a week to go until election day.

“Today, I’m proud to announce we’re delivering $3 billion in funding from my inflation Reduction Act to help clean up and modernize ports in 27 different states and territories from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and beyond — including, yes, Puerto Rico,” Biden said during remarks from the Port of Baltimore, seizing on controversial comments made during this weekend’s Trump rally at Madison Square Garden over the weekend.

Standing in front of the Patapsco River, Biden joked, without naming Trump, “I’m gonna take that guy for a swim out there.” He then added that Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland was “lookin’ at me — don’t get going, Joe,” before moving on to the rest of his prepared remarks.

Biden’s appearance in Maryland with seven days until the election underscored the president’s diminished role on the campaign trail, having become a liability for the Harris campaign in its closing days as Vice President Kamala Harris seeks to put some distance between herself and Biden. The state has a semi-competitive Senate race, and Biden joined Democratic candidate Angela Alsobrooks at a local ice cream shop after his remarks.

Biden told reporters he planned to watch Harris’ closing argument speech this evening on the Ellipse, but he conceded it wasn’t his place for him to attend.

Asked why he wouldn’t be at the event in the backyard of the White House, Biden said, “Cause it’s for her — it’s her night.”

Trump said it was an "honor to be involved" at his Madison Square Garden rally, which he dubbed a "lovefest"

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said “it was my honor to be involved” in his recent rally in Madison Square Garden in New York City, calling the event “breathtaking.”

“I don’t think anybody has ever seen anything like what happened the other night at Madison Square Garden. The love, the love, the love in that room. It was breathtaking and you could’ve filled it many, many times with the people that were unable to get in,” Trump said during remarks at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

The rally caused controversy due to a series of insulting remarks made by speakers toward Vice President Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and Puerto Rico, which a comedian at the event called a “floating island of garbage.” The Trump campaign later said the comments about Puerto Rico didn’t reflect Trump’s views or his campaign’s.

Trump also referenced how critics likened the event to a 1939 pro-Nazi gathering at the previous arena on the same site, laughing it off and saying that many politicians have used that venue over time.

Trump was recently called a “fascist” by Democratic rivals and a few Republicans and former members of his administration, most notably John Kelly, a retired Marine general who was Trump’s White House chief of staff, who said the former president fits “into the general definition of fascist” and that he spoke of the loyalty of Hitler’s Nazi generals.

Vance says GOP administration will not prioritize Tesla over "Big 3" automakers

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance said that a Trump-Vance administration would not prioritize Tesla over the “Big 3” automakers — despite Elon Musk’s political and financial support for the GOP ticket.

“Elon was a center left Clinton Democrat four years ago, and now he’s putting on dark MAGA hats because he’s sick of the craziness, and wants to go back to commonsense. I think that’s why Elon is supporting our candidacy. It’s not because he thinks that we’re going to do anything for him. It’s because he thinks that we’re going to make the American nation more peaceful, more prosperous and more secure,” Vance told a local reporter at an event in Saginaw, Michigan.

Vance said he wanted the “Big 3” automakers, Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis — which all have a significant presence in Michigan — to “thrive and to survive,” adding, “they’re not going to if we keep on forcing electric vehicles made in China down the throats of American consumers.”

He acknowledged that Musk is “very interested” in electric vehicles and that former President Donald Trump “rips him from time to time,” saying his position is, “if you want to make electric vehicles, great. We don’t want to force anybody to drive anything.”

More context: Vance and other Republicans have repeatedly hammered Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats in Michigan over electric vehicle policies, including on Tuesday, where Vance told voters that autoworkers in the state would “pay the price” for Harris’ “obsession” with EVs.

The Ohio senator has downplayed and refused to commit to continuing a $500 million grant issued by the Biden administration to convert a GM facility in Lansing into an electric vehicle plant, a major project in the state.

Harris has attempted to distance herself from the claim that Democrats want to enforce a total EV mandate, telling voters in Flint earlier this month “I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive.” Her campaign distributed a fact check earlier this year saying Harris didn’t support a “mandate,” but rather the Biden administration’s goal to have EVs comprise half of all new vehicle sales by 2030.

Biden’s role in the campaign has been moved even further out of the spotlight in final weeks to election

President Joe Biden’s role in the 2024 presidential campaign in the final weeks of the election has been moved even further out of the spotlight as recent campaign trail gaffes prompted a range of responses — from eyerolls to outright anger — from some Harris campaign aides.

Planning for a range of Biden events had been up in the air late last week as the campaign worked to reassess how best to use the incumbent, who now plans to make several solo stops this week, including an infrastructure speech in Baltimore and an address to union members in Philadelphia.

As he’s watched from the sidelines of the race that he was in a little more than three months ago, Biden has embarked on some soul-searching, those close to him say, reflecting on both the long arc of his career and its abrupt end – his decades as a beloved party operative and, more recently, persona non grata.

Biden, these people say, remains firm in his view that he would be able to defeat his predecessor in November if he remained at the top of the Democratic ticket.

Once defiant on his mental and physical fitness in the face of questions from reporters, concerns within his own party and a blistering critique by former special counsel Robert Hur, Biden has become much more circumspect on his abilities, multiple sources told CNN.

Read more about Biden’s soul-searching as he takes a step back from the campaign.

CNN Polls: Harris and Trump virtually tied in races in Arizona and Nevada

In the critical Southwest battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump run near even in the race for the White House, according to new CNN polls conducted by SSRS.

The findings come as large numbers of voters report having already cast ballots and the pool of those open to changing their mind shrinks.

Harris holds 48% support among likely voters in Arizona, according to the poll, to 47% for Trump. In Nevada, 48% of likely voters support Trump and 47% back Harris. Those 1-point margins fall within each poll’s margin of sampling error, finding no clear leader in either state.

The surveys find voters’ views largely set on who would better handle top issues, while on a range of key attributes, neither candidate has convinced a critical mass of voters that they’re the better choice. Voters in both states have at best a narrow preference for which candidate cares more about people like them, shares their vision of the country or would put the country’s interests above their own self-interest.

The Nevada poll suggests little change in the state of the race there since late August, but in Arizona, the new results point to a shift in Harris’ favor. The new poll finds Harris improving there with core Democratic constituencies such as women, Latino voters and younger voters. The shift is notably concentrated among women, who now break for Harris by 16 points, while men continue to favor Trump by a 14-point margin.

Read more about these polls in key battleground states, where the race for the White House remains exceedingly tight.

Trump says he will seize assets of gangs and drug cartels and create fund for victims of "migrant crime"

Former President Donald Trump announced that if reelected, he will seize the assets of “criminal gangs and drug cartels” and create a compensation fund for victims of “migrant crime.”

“So, today, I’m announcing for the first time under my administration we will seizing the assets of the criminal gangs and drug cartels. And we will use those assets to create a compensation fund to provide restitution for the victims of migrant crime,” he said. “The government will help with the restitution.”

Trump made the announcement during campaign remarks from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, where he slammed Vice President Kamala Harris for illegal immigration under the Biden administration.

Trump regularly rails against undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes in the US as he tries to blame Harris for illegal immigration under the Biden administration. A key part of Trump’s message involves stoking fears about undocumented immigrants committing violent crimes.

CNN’s Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.

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Trump delivers remarks at Mar-a-Lago one week before Election Day

00:32 - Source: CNN

Trump unleashes series of familiar attacks against Harris at Mar-a-Lago

In a speech at Mar-a-Lago, ex-President Donald Trump on Tuesday unleashed a series of familiar attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of her speech in the Ellipse tonight.

Trump said that Harris “obliterated our borders” and “decimated the middle class,” adding that “bloodshed” and “squalor” had taken over in America’s cities and “chaos” was unleashed all over the world.

Trump’s remarks, which were billed as a “prebuttal” to Harris’ speech tonight, resembled his usual stump speech. He has so far not addressed the controversial comments made by a comedian at a rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden, who called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.”

DC police will focus on security at ballot boxes and polling locations leading up to Election Day, chief says

During a news conference Tuesday, DC Metro Police Chief Pamela Smith said the department is prepared for key upcoming dates, including Election Day, adding that the department will be focused on security around ballot box and polling locations.

“We will pay special attention to ballot box drop off locations and our polling places,” Smith said, noting that she was aware of instances of ballot box tampering in the US and that the department will be fully activated in the days around the election.

Smith, when asked about ballot box security, said officers in DC are “patrolling the area to make sure everything is ok.”

On the election, Smith said the department “will be working closely with all of our partners to monitor events on election night and the days that follow.”

In discussing increased security for January 6, the anniversary of the Capitol riot and the day when Congress will certify the 2024 election, as well as other key dates, Smith stressed that “there are no identifiable threats here in the District of Columbia.”

Smith similarly addressed Vice President Harris’ speech at the Ellipse Tuesday evening, saying the department is “expecting upwards of about 52,000” participants to attend, up from the 20,000 originally expected.

The National Park Service has amended its original permit to accommodate 40,000 participants, according to the permit shared with CNN.

During her press conference, Smith referred to a “break glass moment,” saying she was ready to call on other law enforcement groups outside of Washington, DC to help quell any issues that arise.

Both January 6 as well as Inauguration Day have been designated by the Department of Homeland Security as National Special Security Events where the federal government will help provide significant security for both events.

Harris says she will draw sharp contrast between her and Trump during Ellipse speech tonight

Vice President Kamala Harris said that she will ask people to imagine who they want sitting in the Oval Office when a new president steps in, during an anticipated speech just steps away from the White House Tuesday evening.

“Look, I’m about to give a speech at the Ellipse in front of the White House, and part of what I will be talking about is that there is going to be a new president on January 20 of next year, and it’s either going to be Donald Trump, or it’s going to be me,” Harris said in a prerecorded interview with syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club.”

Harris has been previewing the speech in recent days — which will be given in the same spot where former President Donald Trump spoke on January 6, 2021 — and has used the “enemies list” versus “to-do list” comparison on the campaign trail as the election nears.

She said her policies are about “home ownership, lifting up our small businesses, lifting up families with children, and lifting up the discourse in a way that it is not about trashing people all the time.”

JD Vance taping podcast with Joe Rogan Wednesday, source says

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance is taping an interview tomorrow with Joe Rogan for his podcast, a source familiar with the plans told CNN.

The interview will be taped at Rogan’s studio in Austin, Texas, and will air later this week.

On Friday, former President Donald Trump sat down with the popular podcaster for nearly 3 hours, where he made at least 32 false claims.

National Park Service increases permit for Harris speech at the Ellipse tonight

The National Park service has amended the permit for Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech at the Ellipse tonight to accommodate 40,000 participants, up from the original 20,000 expected to attend, according to a permit shared with CNN.

Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said the department is “expecting upwards of about 52 thousand” participants in a presser on election security Tuesday morning.

Harris’ speech, which will be given in the same park where former President Donald Trump spoke on January 6, 2021, will ask people to imagine who they want sitting in the Oval Office when a new president steps in – and where they want that person’s focus to be, she said in a pre-recorded interview with syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club.”

Harris pushes back on reported lack of support among Black men: “The brothers aren’t saying that”

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday dismissed pundits who say she doesn’t have strong electoral support from Black men – saying she’d heard differently from many community leaders and alleging that idea came from a media “narrative.”

She said “these men, these Black men” she spoke to were “talking about not only their support for me but most importantly their support from my perspective on what we can do that lifts up the community and taps into the ambitions, and the aspiration”

At her recent rallies, Harris said the Black men in particular had told her, “Don’t you listen to that, and they got to stop with all the noise, we support you,” she also said she respected and understood the need to “earn their vote.”

Harris said her poll numbers were actually good with Black men because “folks know I have a genuine commitment based on hard work that I have already done to lift up” the Black community – and attacked Donald Trump for his record with communities of color.

“Donald Trump and Madison Square Garden, with all those tropes,” she said, her voice rising.

“Donald Trump who took out a full-page ad in the New York Times for the Central Park Five, suggesting that these young black and brown – and they were not young men, they were children – should be executed. Donald Trump who, in New York as a landlord, refused to rent to black families. Donald Trump, who called the first black president – called him out and suggested he was not born in the United States and then, most recently, refers to Black Legal immigrants in Ohio, as though they’re eating their pets.”

Michael Bloomberg donates $50 million to entities supporting Harris

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire entrepreneur and former mayor of New York City, has donated $50 million to entities supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a person familiar with the matter.

A longtime political juggernaut who launched a failed bid for the Democratic nomination in 2020, Bloomberg had given $19 million to support Biden’s candidacy in May but stopped short of endorsing Harris when she became the presumptive nominee.

Harris’s economic team recently convened a meeting with Bloomberg, which covered a range of issues including tax policy, and the vice president called in to share her thoughts.

CNN has reached out to representatives for Bloomberg for comment. The New York Times was the first to report Bloomberg’s contributions.

Harris will deliver closing argument speech at Ellipse tonight, site of Trump’s January 6 rally

CNN reported last week that Vice President Kamala Harris plans to deliver a final-stretch closing argument address Tuesday at the same location her rival delivered a fiery speech on January 6, 2021, that set in motion the attack by his supporters at the US Capitol.

Harris’ speech Tuesday at the Ellipse, a park just outside the South Lawn of the White House, will amount to a high-profile denunciation of former President Donald Trump’s fitness for office and a warning about the chaos she says he would bring to the Oval Office should he win.

Coming a week ahead of Election Day, Harris will use the major address to contrast her own vision of the presidency with her rival’s, painting pictures both of what her first term would look like and a dire portrait of Trump’s potential return.

Harris campaign advisers previewed the speech last week on the condition of anonymity to discuss an event they said was still in the development stage.

After he lost the 2020 election, Trump sought to convince his supporters he won, including during a now-infamous speech from the Ellipse. He told his supporters during the speech to march to the Capitol so they could pressure lawmakers to overturn the election while they met for a joint session of Congress to formally certify President Joe Biden’s victory.

In the hours afterward, a riot unfolded at the Capitol; Trump has been indicted for his role in working to overturn the election results in the run-up to the insurrection attempt.

In the closing days of this year’s presidential election, the vice president and her team have sought to underscore the stakes of the election, repeatedly warning of a potential second Trump term and seizing on the former president’s controversial policies and comments to make their argument.

What is a swing state? Why 7 states will decide who wins the US presidential election

Seven states will prove key to electing the next president of the United States: Arizona, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

So what is a swing state, and why is their vote so important?

There are 538 Electoral College votes split among the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Each state gets at least three votes, depending on the size of their congressional delegation.

Congressional seats are assigned to each state based on their population. So, the smallest states get three electoral college votes (they have two senators and one member of Congress). Washington, DC, also gets three. The most populous states get a lot more: California gets 54 electoral votes (it has two senators and 52 congressional districts), Texas has 40, Florida has 30, New York has 28 and so on.

In almost all states, the winning candidate takes all electoral votes. Whichever candidate gets 270 or more electoral votes becomes president.

Some states are historically blue (where Democrats dominate) or red (where Republicans dominate). The swing states are those where voters don’t tend to consistently vote for the same party, but swing states can change from election to election.

The bigger swing states, such as Pennsylvania, have more congressional seats, and are therefore extra important for a candidate’s road to 270. And if a candidate wins three or more swing states, they’re more likely to win the election.

That’s why the seven swing states could determine who becomes president.

Catch up on more key things to know about the election here.

The votes in this room could decide the election. CNN gets exclusive look at Michigan ballot verification

After the 2020 election, chaos erupted at a Detroit counting center as Joe Biden overtook Donald Trump.

This year, election officials have given CNN exclusive access to see how they’re trying to avoid the mayhem and get faster results.

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Detroit covered up windows while counting votes in 2020. CNN goes behind the scenes to see their plans for 2024

03:51 - Source: CNN

Analysis: America’s CEOs are uneasy about Trump’s promised revenge tour

If reelected, Donald Trump has made clear that he plans to exact revenge on those he perceives as a threat. His “enemies” list seems to be constantly growing as the election nears, and includes Democratic politicians, the media, lawyers and political donors who he believes were “involved in unscrupulous behavior.”

Any CEO with a memory of Trump’s first term knows that it’s wise to take those threats seriously, as the president didn’t hesitate to sound off and, with a single social media post, sink a company’s stock or spark a boycott.

While dozens of American business leaders have used their money and power to resist that kind of bullying and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris, others are choosing to bend the knee. Or to keep just quiet enough to avoid becoming a target.

Editorial endorsement controversy: Post owner Jeff Bezos didn’t endorse Trump explicitly. Instead, he blocked the paper’s editorial page from endorsing any candidate for the first time in decades — a not-at-all subtle nod to the Republican nominee, and one that legendary former Post editor Marty Baron called an act of cowardice.

Baron, who retired from the Post in 2021, on Saturday told CNN’s Michael Smerconish that Trump has threatened Bezos “continually,” but that Bezos had previously resisted that pressure.

“I was very grateful … for his willingness to stand up to the pressure from Donald Trump in 2015 … until now. But the fact is that Bezos has other commercial interests,” including a large stake in Amazon and a private space company, Blue Origin.

And Blue Origin, of course, competes directly with SpaceX, the rocket maker owned by outspoken Trump supporter Elon Musk, for government contracts.

Read the full analysis of executives doing diplomacy behind the scenes.

Retired conservative judge says if Republicans don’t put America before party this election, they never will

Retired federal appeals court Judge J. Michael Luttig, a prominent conservative legal scholar, is urging Republicans to put the country before their party this Election Day and reject Donald Trump, who, he says, has “ever so betrayed America.”

Luttig, who was put on the bench by President George H.W. Bush, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in August. The election marks the first time the veteran of two Republican administrations will for a Democrat.

Voters, the former judge says, must decide on November 5 “whether Donald Trump is fit to be President of the United States again,” adding: “He is not.”

Invoking Trump’s recent comments on using military force on Election Day to handle the “enemy from within,” he says the former president “betrayed us” when he before sat in the Oval Office.

“There could be no higher duty of American citizenship than to decisively repudiate a man who betrayed the nation when he was previously entrusted with the highest office in the land and now threatens the persecution of American citizens who have crossed him. In the almost 250 years since the founding of the nation, no president before Donald Trump has ever so betrayed America,” Luttig writes.

Luttig played a now famous role in persuading then-Vice President Mike Pence to defy Trump to certify the 2020 presidential election and has since emerged as a preeminent constitutional critic of Trump, who he has described as an existential threat to American democracy.

Steve Bannon released from prison in week before Election Day

Steve Bannon was released from federal prison Tuesday, according to a source, emerging just a week before Election Day to retake the helm of his weakened right-wing media platform.

Bannon, a right-wing podcast host and the chief executive of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, has remained a strident supporter of the former president.

Even as he reported to federal prison in Connecticut in July, Bannon insisted he would influence the presidential race from behind bars and that his “War Room” podcast would continue to energize the Trump base.

While in prison, Bannon digitally kept in touch with a small group of loyalists, including some of those who served as guest host for the podcast, according to two sources familiar with the matter. Bannon would in part discuss news of the day and politics including topics he thought about for the show.

Bannon was met early Tuesday morning by his daughter Maureen. He is expected to host his radio program later on Tuesday.

He was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House Select Committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. He is continuing to appeal his conviction.

While in prison, Bannon’s MAGA megaphone has suffered in his absence. “War Room,” which frequently appeared in Apple’s Top Podcasts before Bannon reported to prison, fell off the charts by early July, according to data from Podchaser. By another measure, the podcast was once near the top of the Apple political podcast charts and has since fallen out of the top 25, per Podchaser data.

While Bannon’s show is mainly seen as an energized for the Trump base, data from Edison Research’s podcast metrics found that nearly half of Bannon’s audience was made up of Republicans but about a third of listeners were independents.

Read the full story.

CNN’s Kristen Holmes contributed reporting.

This post has been updated with additional information.

See how each candidate says they would tackle key economic issues as president

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have laid out a broad array of ideas aimed at making life more affordable and strengthening the economy, which rank at the top of voters’ concerns.

Nearly all of the measures on their differing wish lists, which lack detail, would require congressional approval. That could be tough to achieve in the current partisan climate on Capitol Hill.

Here are some of them:

Expiring tax cuts: Some parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one of Trump’s signature achievements during his time in the White House, are scheduled to lapse at the end of 2025.

Harris: The vice president has said that she will continue President Joe Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year — which would mean extending some of the individual tax cuts. But she will push Congress to roll back tax cuts for the richest Americans, according to her policy paper. The vice president is also proposing some additional tax hikes on wealthy Americans.

Trump: The former president wants to extend all the individual income and estate tax cuts that the 2017 law provided. This includes, among other things, an increase to the standard deduction, lower marginal income tax rates for most income brackets and an increase to the estate tax exemption. Trump has suggested he would get rid of the cap on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT, and has called for lowering the corporate tax rate to 15% for certain companies.

Cut prices:

Harris: One of the main ways she intends to address the issue is by instituting a first-ever national price-gouging ban on food and groceries. The ban would be aimed at big corporations that unfairly exploit consumers during crises and emergencies to increase their profits.

Trump: Trump has repeatedly said he will bring down prices by boosting oil and gas production. He’s vowed to allow for more drilling and reduce regulations. But those efforts may have a limited effect on prices at the pump, which in the US are highly dependent on the global oil market. Trump has also promised to rescind unspent funds under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Read a full comparison of the candidate’s proposals.

Key issues the candidates have campaigned on this election

Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have focused on a slate of issues during their campaigns ahead of the US presidential election.

In a September CNN poll, about four in 10 likely voters (41%) called the economy the most important issue for them as they choose a candidate for president, with protecting democracy second at 21%, immigration at 12% and abortion at 11%.

Here’s what you need to know about the issues:

Economy: High prices are a top concern for many Americans who are struggling to afford the cost of living after a spell of steep inflation. Trump and Harris have laid out an array of ideas aimed at making life more affordable and strengthening the economy. Nearly all of the measures, which lack detail, would require congressional approval. That could be tough to achieve in the current partisan climate on Capitol Hill. Trump’s policy proposals, if enacted, are also expected to cause the government to borrow significantly more money compared to Harris’ policy plans.

Democracy: Trump’s continued false claims about election fraud in 2020 and the January 6 riot by his supporters at the Capitol Hill have remained in the spotlight. Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, has repeatedly refused to say whether he believes Trump lost the 2020 election. Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney appeared with the vice president in Wisconsin in October to urge independents and Trump-wary Republicans to vote for the Democrat despite their sharp differences on policy.

Immigration: Trump has all but staked his presidential campaign on convincing Americans that closing the border and deporting those who illegally crossed it are the most pressing priorities for the country. He has claimed — over the repeated objections of state and local leaders, including from his own party — falsehoods about Haitian migrants living in Springfield, Ohio. Harris has lambasted Trump for telling congressional Republicans to block a bipartisan border measure earlier this year.

Abortion: This is the first presidential election since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Throughout his career, going back 25 years, Trump has found himself on every side of the contentious debate on abortion — at times shifting stances seemingly to match the politics of the voters he is trying win over. Most recently, Trump, who appointed three of the Supreme Court judges who overturned federal abortion protections, has sought to moderate his stance on the issue. But he has also defended the overturning of Roe v. Wade. In contrast, Harris has taken on the lead role of championing abortion rights for the Biden administration. She has also zeroed in more sharply on Trump’s role in the gutting of federal abortion rights, calling his often-callous discussion of the issue a mark of “cruelty.”

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

Here's what happened on the campaign trail yesterday

The presidential campaign is in its final sprint as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump visit battleground states.

Harris is leaning into her messaging on abortion rights and contrasting her character with Trump’s, while he hammers Democrats on immigration and the economy.

Millions of people have already cast their ballots in the deadlocked race. The latest CNN poll finds the candidates neck-and-neck.

Here’s a recap of what happened on Monday:

Federal officials have joined the investigation of two ballot drop boxes that were lit on fire Monday. One was in Portland, Oregon, and the other was about 10 miles away in Vancouver, Washington.

Trump held a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday evening where he dismissed accusations that he is a fascist, saying: “I’m the opposite of a Nazi.” He also joined a religious event in the state, where he said he would have a faith office connected “directly into the Oval Office” if elected.

Harris toured a semiconductor facility and a union training facility in Michigan as part of her pitch to invest in US manufacturing jobs and galvanize union workers to vote for her.

Democratic Gov. Tim Walz was in Wisconsin, continuing the Harris campaign’s outreach to Republican voters. He appeared at an event with the Republican mayor of Waukesha, who has endorsed Harris.

Harris described Trump’s event in New York on Sunday, where Trump loyalists spewed racist and vulgar attacks, as “absolutely something that is intended to, and is, fanning the fuel of trying to divide our country.”

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff also sharply criticized Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, saying that it was “appalling to hear these slurs.” Other Puerto Rican leaders and Latino officials also condemned remarks made at the event.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance said people have to “stop getting offended at every little thing,” when asked about the comment made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe equating Puerto Rico to a “floating island of garbage” during the Sunday rally.

President Joe Biden cast his ballot Monday in New Castle, Delaware. Asked after he voted whether the moment was bittersweet for him, the president responded it was “just sweet.”

Most voters think Donald Trump would not concede if he lost the presidential election, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. Just 30% of registered voters think Trump would accept the results of the election and concede if he lost.
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