With just over two weeks to go before the 2024 presidential election and the race in a dead heat, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are hitting the campaign trail in strategic battleground states.
The Republican nominee made three North Carolina stops Monday, including a visit to see storm damage in Asheville. Harris is out to win over suburban voters in key Midwestern battleground states and teaming up with Republican Liz Cheney.
Here’s the latest:
Harris has closed her final event of the day
She ended the evening by saying, “I hope to earn your vote, by the way.”
Cheney: ‘We’re better than partisanship’
Cheney says that the U.S. has to be able to say, “We’re better than partisanship,” as she seeks to convince undecided voters to back Harris.
Harris herself says U.S. democracy requires a “two-party system.” She says debates are important and disagreements are, too. “But not name calling.”
She says that Trump wants to focus only on himself and his grievances.
Harris reaches out to Americans who are anti-abortion
Harris says she’s spoken with Americans who are anti-abortion who are surprised and concerned by the post-Roe medical landscape and “did not intend for the harm” that some women are now suffering because of increasing abortion restrictions.
Women in some states have lost access to reproductive care in states with strict abortion laws.
She was asked about reproductive rights by an undecided voter who says she is a conservative Christian but she feels the laws post-Roe are less about the unborn and “more about controlling women.”
Harris is looking to win over Republican voters
Harris — with help from Cheney — is trying to convince Republicans who are concerned about Trump to instead vote for her.
She’s speaking to a small theater of voters in the critical battleground state of Wisconsin — some of those in attendance have never voted for a Democrat, according to the event’s moderator.
Trump wraps faith campaign event
Trump wrapped up his speech at a campaign event in Concord, North Carolina where he largely tried to appeal to Christian voters by repeating his criticism about transgender athletes and his proposal to conduct a large-scale deportation operation. Trump said that during his administration, he fought for Christians “like no president has ever fought before.”
Walz says some Republicans want to 'move off the MAGA stuff'
Vice presidential nominee Tim Walz says the Democratic ticket is focused on attracting traditional Republicans to support Vice President Kamala Harris for president.
In an interview with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's “The Daily Show,” Minnesota Gov. Walz says a lot of the undecided voters he meets on the campaign trail are Republicans.
“It’s a lot of those folks that are trying to get permission to move off the MAGA stuff and move over,” he says. “These are folks that want to find a reason to not vote for Donald Trump. We need to give them that.”
Trump endorses the Republican candidate for Alaska’s only House seat
Trump participated in a telerally late Monday for Republican Nick Begich, who is challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola for Alaska’s only House seat.
Trump endorsed Begich after the Republican he’d initially backed withdrew following the primary.
Peltola in 2022 became the first Alaska Native in Congress after winning special and regular elections for the seat, defeating opponents including Begich. Trump dismissed her election as a “fluke.”
Trump’s energetic crowd
There have been repeated affirmations from Trump’s Concord crowd, bursts of applause and standing ovations for some of Trump’s accomplishments like the appointment of three U.S. Supreme Court justices.
Many in the crowd have joined into a one-sided conversation with Trump as he has mentioned Harris, with numerous shouts of “go home, Kamala” and “the enemy” when mentions of Democrats have been made.
Trump reflects on his faith, says Harris is ‘very destructive to religion’
Compared to his typical rallies and town halls, Trump’s faith leader event in Concord, North Carolina, has placed spirituality at the forefront. Supporters have chanted “Jesus” and “Praise God” throughout the night.
Trump spent some time reflecting on the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, where a bullet grazed his ear. Trump shared how his parents used to take him to church in Queens and Manhattan.
“As I look back at my life’s journey and events, I now recognize that it’s been the hand of God leading me to where I am today,” he said. “I would like to think that God saved me for a purpose. And that’s to make our country greater than ever before.”
Trump said his opponent Kamala Harris is “very destructive to religion.”
Biden shouts out Harris while honoring artists at a medal ceremony
At a White House ceremony honoring winners of the National Medals of Arts and National Humanities Medals, Biden took a brief detour in his remarks to give a shoutout to Harris’ run for the White House.
“I know the power of the women in this room to get things done” and boost the next generation, Biden told the crowd that included singer and actress Queen Latifah and poet Joy Harjo. He added that female winners were “proving a woman can do anything a man can do, and then some, that includes being president of the United States of America.”
The line drew a standing ovation from the star-studded crowd that also included directors Spike Lee and Steven Spielberg, and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.
Biden also told the winners that the moment was a “very consequential time in the arts and humanities in America” because “extreme forces are banning books, trying to erase history, spreading misinformation.”
6 inches of snow delay early voting in Fairbanks, Alaska
Election season has coincided with the first major cold-weather storm, leading to a delayed start for voting in Fairbanks, Alaska.
The state Division of Elections canceled early voting Monday in Fairbanks after more than 6 inches of wet, heavy snow fell overnight. That snow transitioned into rain Monday morning, leaving water on top of super compact, hard snow, said Stephen Dennis, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Besides upending the first day of early voting, the ice and snow also prompted the cancelation of all in-person classes at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a plea from city police to avoid unnecessary travel.
The forecast calls for more accumulation Tuesday, with up to 10 inches of snow expected to fall.
Pennsylvania man charged with threatening to kill a state political party employee
The Pennsylvania man has been charged with threatening to kill a state political party employee who was recruiting Election Day poll watchers, the Justice Department said Monday.
Prosecutors say John Courtney Pollard, 62, texted the state political party representative that he was interested in being a poll watcher after the person posted online last month that they were looking for volunteers.
Pollard, of Philadelphia, then sent the person a series of threatening messages, threatening to kill them in one if they didn’t respond and threatening to skin them alive in another, prosecutors allege.
There was no attorney listed in the court docket for Pollard, and a voice message was left on a cellphone listed for him.
The case was brought through the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, which was created in 2021 amid escalating threats of violence against election workers nationwide.
They’re eating gummies, all sorts of things’
In her conversation with Harris, Shriver asked the Democratic nominee about what she is doing to de-stress, saying that Americans say they’re turning off the news, they’re doing yoga, “they’re eating gummies, all sorts of things.”
The crowd laughed and Harris said: “Not eating gummies,” with a chuckle. Harris said she was having trouble sleeping. She says she wakes up in the middle of the night and she works out in the morning and that her family grounds her.
But she also says that Americans should not despair. Everyone in a Democracy has the ability to make a decision about the future through their votes. “Let’s not feel powerless,” she said. “That’s not in our nature.”
Harris: Trump can be manipulated ‘by dictators and autocrats’
Harris says Trump “has been manipulated and is so clearly able to be manipulated by favor and flattery including by dictators and autocrats.”
She says if he wins the White House, Ukraine will fall to Russia and that will have terrible consequences globally.
Harris praised the bipartisan support for Ukraine in Congress and said she believes it will continue but that she worries about Trump’s embrace of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Harris and Cheney haven’t always gotten along
With Liz Cheney becoming one of Harris’ fiercest advocates — the two are currently at a campaign event together — the Trump campaign is resurfacing a 2019 post made by a Harris campaign spokesman criticizing the former Wyoming representative and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney.
The post made by Harris spokesman Ian Sams says, “Liz Cheney helped lead us into Iraq from a special State Department Middle East post her dad’s administration created for her.” The post was made in response to Cheney’s then-criticism of Harris.
Democrats have long vilified Dick Cheney for his defense of the Iraq War. Liz Cheney was selected in 2005 by then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as principal deputy assistant for near Eastern affairs and to coordinate initiatives in the broader Middle East and North Africa.
Harris continues to reintroduce herself
Harris and Cheney are being interviewed by Maria Shriver, the former first lady of California under Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who says many voters feel they don’t know the vice president, and asked her to speak about herself “to give them a feeling for who you are.”
Harris’ truncated campaign — she only started running for the presidency in July when President Biden stepped aside — has limited the time she’s had to introduce herself to the American public.
“I am a wife. I am a mother. I am a sister,” she said. “I am a godmother. I love to cook. I started my career as a prosecutor.”
Harris doesn’t find Trump funny
Harris says voters should take Trump’s rhetoric seriously, rather than writing it off as some “sick sense of humor.”
“Some people find it humorous, what he says, and it’s just silly,” she said. “But understand how serious it is.”
She referenced that retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs under Trump, reportedly described him as “fascist to the core.”
Liz Cheney’s message to Republicans
Liz Cheney has a message for GOP voters who don’t want to see Trump in the White House but are scared to go against their party and vote for Harris.
She says Americans can “vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody.”
Cheney says she thinks “millions” of Republicans will be quietly casting a vote for the Democrat.
Cheney says she’s actively supporting Harris because she believes Trump is dangerous, especially because he tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election and still refuses to admit he lost.
Trump has ended his speech at a rally in Greenville, North Carolina
He thanked SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk for helping him campaign in Pennsylvania.
Trump’s attacks against Harris are getting nastier
Trump keeps escalating his attacks on Harris at his Greenville, North Carolina, rally, calling her a “nutjob” and accusing her of lacking compassion and strength.
He criticized Harris for being at a fundraiser in San Francisco after Hurricane Helene ravaged the U.S. Southeast.
“Kamala Harris does not have the compassion, the smarts or the strength to be the president of the United States,” he said. “She just can’t do the job.”
Trump has previously called Harris “mentally impaired,” and over the weekend he added a profanity when encouraging supporters to vote Democrats out of office.
“You have to tell Kamala Harris that you’ve had enough, that you just can’t take it anymore, we can’t stand you anymore, you’re a s— vice president.”
A secret message in the ladies’ room
Harris is campaigning with Republican Liz Cheney at the Royal Oak Theater in Michigan, and inside the ladies’ room, there’s a secret message for women voters.
“Woman to woman — your vote is secret,” the notes read. “Support reproductive rights this November.”
The pink sticky notes are taped inside every stall.
After Trump’s campaign appearance at a McDonald’s drive-thru, Harris criticized him for not supporting an increase in minimum wage
She said that someone working full time at the federal minimum wage of $7.25 would only make $15,000 a year, which she said are “essentially poverty wages.”
Harris also pointed to a nonpartisan analysis that said Trump’s policies would deplete Social Security.
“Donald Trump clearly doesn’t understands the needs of working people.”
At a North Carolina rally, Trump said Harris and the Biden administration haven’t done enough to help after Hurricane Helene
At a rally in Greenville, North Carolina, Trump attacked his opponent and the Biden administration, claiming they haven’t properly supported the western part of the state after it was battered by Hurricane Helene last month.
He repeated an incorrect claim that the federal government doesn’t have enough money for hurricane victims because it is being used to help immigrants in the country illegally.
“They didn’t have any money left for North Carolina,” he said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund gets replenished every year by Congress and is used to pay for recovery from natural disasters. The agency said that money is only used for disaster-related efforts and hasn’t been diverted to support border issues.
Harris responded to Trump’s accusations that she never worked at McDonald’s while she was a college student
“Did I?” she said while getting off Air Force Two in Michigan. “I did.”
Harris also gave a thumb’s up.
The White House pushed back against statements by Trump that the administration failed to help after Hurricane Helene
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the Republican nominee’s comments “dangerous” and said they had been debunked on a bipartisan basis.
Jean-Pierre noted that 5,500 federal personnel were in North Carolina and Florida after Helene and Hurricane Milton. And she said $2 billion in federal assistance had been approved for those affected in North Carolina.
“They are dangerous,” Jean-Pierre said of Trump’s remarks. “They are unhelpful. It is not what leadership looks like.”