Harris campaign office in Arizona shot at for third time in a month, police say
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(TEMPE, Ariz.) — The campaign office shared by Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and the Democratic Party in Tempe, Arizona, was damaged by gunfire for the third time in less than a month on Sunday, police told ABC News on Wednesday.
The Tempe Police Department provided new details in its investigation, including a picture of the suspect’s vehicle it says is possibly a 2008-2013 silver Toyota Highlander, and announced that Silent Witness was offering up to a $1,000 reward “for any information that leads to the arrest or indictment of the suspect(s) involved in this crime.”
The shooting occurred between midnight and 1 a.m., around the same time the previous two incidents occurred, police said. No one was injured in any of the three shootings.
Harris is scheduled to travel to Arizona on Thursday for a rally and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, was in the state on Wednesday.
After the second shooting on Sept. 23, police said they were taking “additional measures… to ensure the safety of staff and others in the area.” A motive for the shooting has not been determined as the investigation continues, according to police.
The office was shot at on Sept. 16 in an incident police said appeared to involve a BB or pellet gun. Police said that shooting caused “criminal damage.”
Law enforcement around the country is under heightened alert over an increase in political violence threats.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Monday denied former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows’ request to have the Arizona “fake elector” case against him moved to federal court from Arizona state court.
Meadows, along with 17 others, was charged in Arizona with forgery and conspiracy over alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state. He has pleaded not guilty.
In August, Meadows’ attorneys argued the case should be moved to federal court because the indictment “squarely relates to Mr. Meadows’s conduct as Chief of Staff to the President.” The argument is similar to the one Meadows has made for months in his Fulton County, Georgia, case, citing a law that calls for the removal of criminal proceedings when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official.
U.S. District Court Judge John J. Tuchi said the state charges — nine felony counts for his role in the effort to overturn former President Donald Trump’s Arizona election loss — is “unrelated” to Meadows’ official duties.
“Although the Court credits Mr. Meadows’s theory that the Chief of Staff is responsible for acting as the President’s gatekeeper, that conclusion does not create a causal nexus between Mr. Meadows’s official authority and the charged conduct,” Tuchi said.
“The Court finds that Mr. Meadows fails to present good cause for his untimely filing of his Notice of Removal, and that in any event, an evaluation on the merits yields that he fails to demonstrate that the conduct charged in the state’s prosecution relates to his former color of office as Chief of Staff to the President,” Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a statement in response to the ruling. “The Court therefore will remand this matter to the state court.”
Earlier this summer, charges were dropped against former Trump campaign attorney Jenna Ellis in exchange for cooperation in the case.
President Joe Biden speaks at a reception in celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 18, 2024. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — In remarks on Thursday at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., President Joe Biden will celebrate the progress of the American economy, but stop short of declaring victory, senior advisors told ABC News on a call previewing the remarks.
Biden said in a post on X that he will speak about what the first key rate cut since 2020 and falling inflation “means for Americans.”
“President Biden is going to speak to a new milestone, inflation and interest rates are falling at the same time, employment, wages and GDP are rising,” White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients told reporters. “I want to be really clear, this is not meant to be a declaration of victory. It’s meant to be a declaration of progress, significant progress. The President believes it’s important to mark this moment for the country by laying out how far we’ve come, while also outlining the work we still have to do.”
Zients added that Biden will lay out the three big pillars of his economic playbook: the historic response to the COVID-19 crisis, the administration’s work to address global inflation and efforts to build an economy that invests in all Americans.
But Zients added that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are still looking ahead to the work that is not finished, pointing to the cost of childcare and housing as two of the biggest areas.
“The president knows this is no time for a victory lap, which is why he will talk about the work ahead every single day, the president and vice president, both, on what more can be done to make the economy stronger, create more jobs and, importantly, lower costs, the President will lay out how we build on the progress that we’ve made across these three and a half years, and what’s at stake,” Zients said.
National Economic Adviser Lael Brainard also talked about the Federal Reserve’s Wednesday rate cut announcement and how recent data is a good sign, but also noted that costs are still high for American families.
“The president will note this hard won progress, but emphasize that we must continue to work together to tackle long standing affordability challenges for middle class families,” Brainard said. “America needs more housing. That’s why it’s critical to move forward on ambitious plans to bid to bring housing costs down by building millions of new affordable homes and providing incentives for states and localities to remove outdated obstacles to building it’s essential we continue to enable more workers to participate in the labor force and to make it easier and more affordable to raise a family.”
One White House official on the call was asked about whether the administration was concerned about rising unemployment in response to Wednesday’s rate cut, but the official brushed off the concern, saying that the Fed’s data shows “the labor market remaining solid,” and adding that unemployment has “remained the lowest on average of any administration in 50 years.”
A reporter also asked whether rising tensions in the Middle East could be a setback in the fight against rising inflation. The different White House official said that it is one of the “geopolitical risks that we consistently monitor.”
“But our assessment, you know, right now is that the economy is in a healthy place, and that the kind of range of risks, while we continue to monitor them are do not pose a significant risk to the to the outlook,” the White House official added.
(WASHINGTON) — Anyone who has watched Election Day coverage in the past, or is excited to do so in the hotly contested 2024 election, has probably heard anchors or analysts refer to exit polls. But what are they and how do they work?
Exit polls are surveys conducted as voters leave their polling places on Election Day. Reaching voters at that moment helps ensure that the people surveyed have actually voted. Critical questions of who won and why are answered from exit poll results. Exit polls tell what issues were important in the election and how important demographic groups voted.
How are exit polls conducted?
Interviewers stand outside polling places at randomly selected precincts across the country and approach voters at specific intervals as they exit, for example every fifth or ninth voter.
Voters who agree to participate fill out a short, confidential questionnaire and place it in a ballot box.
Interviewers phone in the results three times during the day. When a voter refuses to participate, interviewers note the gender and approximate age and race of that voter. This information is used to statistically adjust the exit poll to ensure that all voters are fairly represented in the final results.
What sort of questions are asked in an exit poll?
The exit poll questionnaire asks who people voted for, their demographics, opinions about the candidates and opinions on important issues. Here’s an example of a previous exit poll issue question, from 2022:
Do you think the condition of the nation’s economy is: 1. Excellent 2. Good 3. Not so good 4. Poor
Are exit polls accurate?
Exit polls, like any other survey, are subject to sampling and non-sampling error. Before news organizations report exit poll results or make projections, they compare results to pre-election polls and the voting history in that precinct and have statisticians and political experts carefully review the data.
After the polls close, exit poll results are weighted using the actual vote to make the data more accurate. Exit polls may be used to project the winners of races where the margin between the candidates is large. But most election projections are made after the polls close based on actual vote data.
How do exit polls account for the people who vote early or by mail?
In the 2020 presidential election, about 70 percent of voters voted before Election Day using some form of mail or early in-person voting. That number is expected to be about 60 percent in 2024.
Exit polls miss those who vote before Election Day. However, it is important to include them in the data in order to have accurate information about all voters.
Exit polls include those who vote absentee or early in two ways. The first is by conducting multi-mode polls (i.e. by phone, text and email) among those who have voted absentee or early. Second, in states with a high proportion of early in-person voters, exit polls are conducted in the weeks leading up to Election Day as these voters leave early-voting polling places. Data from the multi-mode polls and early-voter exit polls are combined with the Election Day exit poll to provide a complete picture of all voters, regardless of when they voted.
When will exit poll results be reported?
On Election Day, there is a strict embargo on any data coming from the early waves of exit poll data until 5 p.m. ET. By about 5:45 p.m. ET, some initial demographic information about voters and their views on key issues in the election will be available on ABCNews.com. After the polls close in a state, the complete exit poll crosstabs (which are data tables showing how a variety of subgroups have voted) will be posted on ABCNews.com.
ABC News will not project a winner until the last scheduled poll closing time in each state. If a race is not projected at poll closing time, the projection will incorporate actual vote data and will be made as soon as the data warrant. Information will be constantly updated throughout the evening on ABCNews.com and on all ABC News programs.
