Protecting Your Vote: Nevada’s ‘swingiest’ county emerges as key battleground in election certification fight
Robyn Beck via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Politicos in Washoe County, Nevada, proudly refer to their home as “the swingiest county in the swingiest state,” where voters in the sprawling and sparsely populated swath of desert might very well tilt the scales of a deadlocked presidential election in November.
But Washoe has also carved out a reputation as the epicenter of a troubling nationwide trend: County officials refusing, for one reason or another, to certify election results.
Despite a legal requirement to accept the vote tally and pass the results along to state election officials, county supervisors in at least eight states have bucked this ministerial duty in recent election cycles, according to one watchdog group, prompting concern among democracy experts that it could upend voters’ faith in the election process.
“What was a sort of wild and desperate idea in 2020 has caught on with certifying officials in the last couple of elections,” said Sean Morales-Doyle, a voting rights expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonprofit think tank. “It won’t be a successful tactic to overturn the outcome of our election, or to stop certification. But it will cause chaos and distrust in the meantime.”
In Washoe County, two members of the county board of commissioners have emerged as symbols of the broader dispute over vote certification: Alexis Hill, the Democratic chair of the board, and Michael Clark, a Republican commissioner. During board meetings, the two sit less than ten feet from each other on the dais. But when it comes to just about everything else — including the role of the commission in certifying election results — they are miles apart.
Hill, 41, lives just blocks from downtown Reno, the county’s most populous city, with her husband and 3-year-old daughter. Most days, she commutes to the county offices on her e-bike. Clark, 73, decamps each day to his ranch near Washoe Lake, where he tends to his horses, mules and dogs. On weekends, he rides his Harley.
‘A dark afternoon’
In the commissioners’ chambers, Hill and Clark regularly tangle over budgets and policy. But no issue fires them up more than election integrity. And in July, Clark and two Republican colleagues made national headlines when they refused to certify the outcome of two local races — prompting fears of what might come to pass in November.
“It was a dark afternoon,” Hill told ABC News’ Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran. “Decisions like that, they break institutions … they make people believe that we don’t have a fair and free election.”
Clark relented a week later under “extreme duress,” he explained at a commission meeting in July. The state’s attorney general had threatened him with felony prosecution for failing to execute a duty of his office.
In an interview with ABC News’ Terry Moran, Clark said he is not an election denier, but believes county election officials have failed to properly maintain the voter rolls. Clark pointed to thousands of mail-in ballots that were sent out to registered voters but returned to the county as undeliverable, which he characterized as evidence of poor recordkeeping by the registrar of voters.
“I believe that the people that are running the registrar of voters office can’t keep accurate records,” Clark said in the interview. “When I see sloppy bookkeeping, I don’t trust it.”
Washoe County Manager Eric Brown has acknowledged that the returned ballots might represent voters who had moved, thereby complicating their ability to vote — but he said at a recent meeting that the county had upgraded its voter registration system, which he said “has enhanced tracking and certification capabilities.”
“Moving forward, keeping track of voter records is going to be — we’ll be able to do that much more accurately,” Brown said.
Clark also said his vote to not certify results in July — which was the third time in his two-year tenure on the commission that he did so — was precipitated by what election experts have called erroneous legal advice from a county attorney who told commissioners to vote their conscience.
Clark’s vote “shocked” the state’s elections chief, Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar.
“It is a ministerial duty to certify the election,” Aguilar, a Democratic, told ABC News’ Terry Moran. “If there are concerns and questions about the election — about the election process, about the election administration — [the commission has] the power to schedule an agenda item to have a conversation about how elections work.”
‘That’s just not their job’
All fifty states make election-certification by county officials a mandatory duty of their job to prevent local partisan politicians from meddling in election results. Election disputes, which frequently arise, are typically resolved through audits, recounts, and the courts.
“It may seem odd to people that [the county officials] who are certifying the election aren’t necessarily the ones that investigate all the things that happened in the election,” Morales-Doyle said. “But that’s just not their job.”
But in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, when former President Donald Trump sought to challenge the outcome of the vote, some county officials have refused to certify results.
It began in Wayne County, Michigan, where Trump reportedly pressured two county officials to not certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to the Detroit News. In the intervening election seasons, more than two dozen officials in eight states, including key swing states like North Carolina and Pennsylvania, have followed suit, according to the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
In Arizona, two Republican supervisors in Cochise County were charged with felonies for delaying certification of the 2022 midterm election until a court ordered them to do so. Both have pleaded not guilty and are scheduled to go to trial next year. Both also remain in their seats on the county board.
And in Georgia, a state judge this week issued a directive that county officials cannot block the certification of votes due to allegations of fraud or error, ruling that officials “have a mandatory fixed obligation to certify election results.”
‘How you undermine democracy’
Back in Nevada, election officials say they are preparing for any possible challenge to the upcoming election results.
“So is this a contagion?” Moran asked Aguilar. “Do you see this happening in other counties this time around?”
“It may, but I think we are prepared, and we have been preparing for the last 18 months to address any issue that comes up. This was one of them,” Aguilar said. “I’ve been working extremely hard with the attorney general to anticipate some of these situations.”
“We have pre-drafted legal filings — kind of like a Mad Libs, right?” Aguilar said. “You know the county, you fill in the county name, you fill in the date, you fill in the facts. And you file that thing as soon as you can before the Nevada Supreme Court.”
Experts say the failure of county officials to certify results is unlikely to succeed in delaying or altering the outcome of the presidential election. But that does not mean it should not alarm American voters.
“Every time this has been tried before, courts have put a quick end to it. And they will again this year,” Morales-Doyle said. “But what it might do is undermine the public’s faith in our process. And that’s really damaging in and of itself.”
“That’s really harmful,” he said. “Democracy works because people have faith in the outcome of their elections. If you undermine that enough, that’s how you undermine democracy.”
In Washoe County, Hill said she would “absolutely” certify the results, regardless of the outcome in the presidential race or in her own reelection race for commissioner.
“I feel like we are ready to go for this general election. And I have no concerns,” she said. “I do believe that there are really good people who are trying to hold the house together.”
Clark, for his part, offered a more reserved commitment.
“Are you going to certify an election in November?” Moran asked him.
“Well, I guess I’m going to have to,” Clark said. “I don’t want to have an argument with the attorney general. The attorney general and the state of Nevada have much deeper pockets than I have.”
ABC News’ Hannah Prince contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden weighed in Friday on unsubstantiated claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are abducting and eating cats and dogs, saying the narrative is “simply wrong” and has “no place in America.”
“This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop,” he added, referring to former President Donald Trump.
Throughout this past week, former President Donald Trump and his allies have continued to double down on the unsubstantiated narrative that Haitian immigrants are eating pets in Springfield.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated the president’s message condemning attacks on Haitian migrant communities in Springfield, Ohio, during a press briefing Friday.
“It is extremely sad and concerning, that a community is facing this type of danger and vitriol, and as the president said today, I think very forcefully, this needs to stop. And there is absolutely no place – absolutely no place, in this country, you know, certainly in our political discourse for this type of vitriolic, smearing hateful language,” she said, emphasizing the danger of “hateful conspiracy theories.”
Jean-Pierre, who herself is Haitian-American, said that she takes it personally when “any community, any vulnerable community is attacked, not just not just a community that I belong to,” when asked by reporters.
She also noted that the federal government has been working with Springfield officials since the spring, with “one-stop clinics” available to migrant communities to help, which she said have served more than 37,000 people.
“We’ve delivered resources to Ohio as well to cities, states and nonprofits across the country. Since the spring, DHS (Department of Homeland Security) has been directly engaged with the city of Springfield and local officials to make sure they have the support they need. And we want to do more. We would like to do more. That’s why we did the bipartisan proposal, with the Senate early – at the end of last year – obviously early into this year. And it was stopped,” Jean-Pierre said.
But in order to help more, Jean-Pierre said, “we need more funding, we need more.” She repeatedly laid blame on Congressional Republicans, who she said is at fault for spiking the bipartisan border legislation that would have provided funding for places like Springfield.
“It was stopped because the former president said that bill, that particular proposal would hurt him and help Joe Biden. And so, Republicans in Congress stopped that. It would have given more resources to cities like Springfield, Ohio. But I don’t want to miss the point here that the administration has indeed provided more than $1.3 billion in grant funding to jurisdiction[s] around the country to help with the influx and what they’re dealing with. We want to do more, but we’ve been blocked in doing so,” she said.
On Thursday, Jean-Pierre called the claims towards Haitian immigrants a “very bizarre and very hateful smear” that the “police department has debunked.”
She also noted that Haitian communities are fearful, keeping children home from school and facing threats to their property.
“So many Americans like Karine, as she pointed out a proud Haitian-American, a community that’s under attack in our country right now. It’s simply wrong. There’s no place in America,” Biden said.
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told ABC News on Friday that such rumors are “factually not true” and promised that “your pets are safe in Springfield.”
The city of Springfield previously told ABC News in a statement that “there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community.”
ABC News’ Emily Chang and Armando Garcia contributed to this report.
Bridget Bennett for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The race for the White House is heading into the final stretch with most polls showing Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump neck-and-neck in key states with just about two weeks to go.
Elon Musk’s PAC pays out 3rd $1 million check to voter
Elon Musk’s America PAC said late Monday that it handed out a third $1 million check to a voter who has signed its petition backing the Constitution.
The PAC said in a post to X that the check was given to Shannon Tomei from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, posting a photograph of Tomei holding the check.
“Every day until Election Day, a person who signs the petition will be selected to earn $1M as a spokesperson for America PAC,” it added.
Musk shared the announcement and congratulated Tomei. In other posts, he has been urging people to register to vote in Pennsylvania — a crucial battleground state in next month’s presidential election.
The first two winners were announced during a town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, over the weekend, with Musk handing over the checks to the winners on stage. It’s unclear how the third check was delivered.
Musk has thrown his weight behind former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, describing Trump as the only candidate “to preserve democracy in America.”
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim
Harris takes jabs at Trump’s dance moves, calls him ‘increasingly unstable’
Vice President Kamala Harris and former Rep. Liz Cheney capped off their battleground tour in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in their bid to appeal to moderate Republicans and independents.
During the final event on Monday, Harris continued to draw a contrast between herself and former President Trump and even poked fun at his dance moves during his campaign rally last week.
Harris, who called Trump’s onstage dancing a “solo dance,” said that it was proof that the former president is “increasingly unstable.”
“What we see about him in public, whether it be his rallies or, as you said, the — what would it be called? — just a solo dance? I don’t know,” said Harris, drawing laughter from the crowd.
“I think it does lead us, and it should lead us, to observe that he is increasingly unstable,” Harris said.
Harris was referencing Trump’s town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, last week where two medical emergencies in the crowd interrupted the event, which eventually turned into what his campaign at the time called an “impromptu concert.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim
Tim Walz reacts to ‘Daily Show’ appearance with Jon Stewart while fundraising in NYC
Fresh off his taping of the “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Gov. Tim Walz told a crowd at the Standard Hotel in New York City on Monday night that the experience was “great” but that the comedian’s monologue at the start of the show was filled with what he considered “doom.”
“I’m like, ‘Quit with the doom.’ You know?” Walz said.
“Yes, Donald Trump is horrible, and the stakes are incredibly high, and women’s lives are at risk, and they demonize immigrants. And then he goes to McDonald’s to try and distract us, even though, the day before that, he said, you know, ‘We need to do something against the enemy from within,’” he went on.
“But there’s an antidote to this,” he concluded, explaining that there was more than enough positivity in the support he has been receiving as he campaigns in battleground states.
At the fundraising event, Walz was introduced by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Hochul told the crowd that she got to know Walz when they were both representing red districts as Democrats in Congress.
She said that she gives Vice President Kamala Harris “a lot of credit” for choosing Walz as a running mate, whom she called “a genuine human being.”
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Trump recalls assassination attempt while courting religious voters in North Carolina
At a Believers and Ballots event in North Carolina Monday, former President Donald Trump worked to court religious voters.
Trump talked about his spiritual journey with the crowd as he emphasized a faith background we don’t often hear him talk about.
“But 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,” said Trump.
The former president reflected on the assassination attempt made against him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania over the summer.
“My faith took on new meaning on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, where I was knocked to the ground, essentially by what seemed like a supernatural hand,” Trump said.
“I would like to think that God saved me for a purpose, and that’s to make our country greater than ever before,” he added.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa
Judges in Michigan and North Carolina reject challenges to overseas votes
Judges in Michigan and North Carolina on Monday ruled against legal challenges that attempted to disqualify votes cast by eligible American voters overseas.
Republican plaintiffs claimed that election offices in those two states, as well as in Pennsylvania, had created loopholes that would allow ineligible people to vote through overseas absentee ballots.
In Michigan, the judge dismissed one of three suits filed, calling it in his opinion “an 11th-hour attempt to disenfranchise these electors.”
In North Carolina, the judge denied a request by plaintiffs to set aside the ballots of overseas voters until a time at which their individual eligibility could be verified. Superior Court Judge John Smith wrote in that instance that there was “absolutely no evidence that any person has ever fraudulently claimed that exemption and actually voted in any North Carolina election.”
His ruling also stated conclusively that, “This court has weighed the hypothetical possibility of harm to plaintiffs against the rights of the defendants and finds that on balance the equitable discretion of this court should not be invoked to treat an entire group of citizens differently based upon unsupported and speculative allegations for which there is not even a scintilla of substantive evidence.”
A ruling on a similar lawsuit in Pennsylvania is expected soon.
-ABC News’ T. Michelle Murphy and Ivan Pereira
Trump spends millions on anti-trans ads despite lack of voter interest
Donald Trump and his Republicans allies are aggressively pushing anti-trans messaging in the final stretch of his campaign — despite the fact that transgender issues are among the least important issues motivating voters to head to the ballot box, according to a Gallup poll.
The Trump campaign and Republican groups have spent more than $21 million on anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ television ads as of Oct. 9.
Additionally, in recent months, Trump-aligned political groups have flooded the airwaves with ads disparaging policies that support the transgender community.
Despite the small size of the transgender population in the U.S., these issues have played a key role in many Republican campaigns on both the state and federal levels.
Trump’s own political agenda, titled Agenda 47, is laden with transgender-based proposals, including a ban on transgender participation in women’s sports, an end to gender-affirming care funded by federal or state dollars, and more.
ABC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on his ad spending.
-ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca and Soo Rin Kim
Walz to travel to Kentucky, North Carolina and Pennsylvania later this week
After Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz campaigns in Wisconsin on Tuesday (where he’ll be joined by former President Barack Obama for a rally in Madison), he’ll remain out on the trail this week.
On Wednesday, Walz will speak at an evening fundraiser in Louisville, Kentucky.
On Thursday, he will spend the morning making political stops in Durham, North Carolina — just a week after he visited the city with former President Bill Clinton. He’ll then make local stops in Greenville, North Carolina, in the afternoon and hold a rally in Wilmington that night.
On Friday, Walz will campaign in Philadelphia, where he’ll speak at a fundraiser in the city around noon.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Harris says she wakes up in middle of night from election stress
Harris said she finds herself waking up in the middle of the night from the stress of the final days of the election, when asked how she handles stress and anxiety during a discussion in Michigan on Monday.
“You know, I wake up in the middle of the night, usually these days. Just to be honest with you,” Harris told Maria Shriver, who moderated the discussion between the vice president and former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in Royal Oak. “But I work out every morning. I think that’s really important to just kind of, you know, mind, body and spirit.”
“Say more about that,” Shriver pressed Harris.
“I work out, I try to eat,” Harris responded. “You know, I love my family, and I make sure that I talk to the kids and my husband every day.”
“My family grounds me in every way,” she added.
The exchange started with Harris making something clear: She’s not taking edibles.
“Everybody I talked to says, you know, I have to turn off the news, I can’t read anything, I’m meditating, I’m doing yoga. I’m so anxious. I just don’t even know. I’m eating gummies, all kinds of things, you know?” Shriver said to Harris, asking, “What are you doing?”
“Not eating gummies,” Harris said to laughs from the crowd.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Liz Cheney makes a case for conservatives to back Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a series of moderated conversations with former Rep. Liz Cheney in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday.
In those appearances, Cheney made a case for conservatives to vote Democrat in the upcoming election and support Harris’ bid for the White House.
“What I would say is that if people are uncertain, if people are thinking, ‘Well, you know, I’m a conservative, I don’t know that I can support Vice President Harris,’ I would say, I don’t know if anybody is more conservative than I am,” said Cheney, who was the third-ranking member of the House Republican Conference from 2019 to 2021.
Cheney also warned Republicans considering voting for Trump that Congress would not be a check on him.
“For anybody who is a Republican who is thinking that, you know, they might vote for Donald Trump because of national security policy, I ask you, please, please study his national security policy,” Cheney said. “Not only is it not Republican — it’s dangerous. And without allies, America will find our very freedom and security challenged and threatened.”
“And one final point on this: Don’t think that Congress can stop him,” Cheney added.
In Malvern, Pennsylvania, Cheney said she thought there would be Republican voters who would cast their ballots for Harris — even if they did not reveal it publicly.
In Michigan, she went further, encouraging voters to do just that, saying, “If you’re at all concerned, you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody, and there will be millions of Republicans who do that on Nov. 5, vote for Vice President Harris.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow, Will McDuffie and T. Michelle Murphy
Trump pushes false claims that Democrats are trying to cheat in election
Rallying in Greenville, North Carolina, on Monday, Trump launched baseless claims about possible fraud in the 2024 election — despite earlier in the day saying he hadn’t seen evidence of it.
At one point during the rally, Trump turned to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley to ask him about election security.
“He’ll stop the cheating. He’s going to stop the cheating,” Trump said to Whatley. “Are they cheating? Michael, they’re trying, but are they? They’re not going to get away with it, right? … They got away with it in plenty of places.”
Earlier in Asheville, North Carolina, Trump told his supporters that he hasn’t seen any evidence of cheating in the election thus far, but added, “I know the other side and they are not good.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Soo Rin Kim
More than 1.5M have voted early in battleground Georgia
The office of the Georgia Secretary of State announced Monday that more than 1.5 million voters have voted early in person in Georgia as of Monday afternoon.
“Georgia voters know we’ve made it easy to cast a ballot. It’s really that simple,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement.
In-person early voting started in the key battleground state on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
As of Monday afternoon, more than 15 million early votes have been cast nationally, including almost 5 million in-person early votes, according to an analysis by the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim
Harris reiterates she worked at McDonald’s after Trump stunt
On her way to her moderated conversation in Michigan, Harris was asked if she had worked at a McDonald’s while deplaning Air Force 2.
“Did I? I did,” she said.
Her past experience at McDonald’s has become a fixation of Trump’s, who over the weekend worked the fryer at one of the chain’s restaurants in the Philadelphia area.
Trump has claimed Harris never worked at the fast food giant. Harris, in introducing herself to voters this campaign, has told the story of working there between her freshman and sophomore years at Howard University in an effort to contrast her working-class roots with Trump’s background.
-ABC News’ Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim
Cheney gives Harris backup on abortion
Harris got backup on a hot-button cultural issue from an unlikely source Monday — conservative former Rep. Liz Cheney.
Cheney — who has broken with Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot — still boasts a conservative record. But Monday, she waded into an issue that Democrats hope will help them win over voters on Election Day.
“I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro-life but who have watched what’s going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need,” Cheney said, referencing the Supreme Court decision that scrapped federal abortion protections.
“In places like Texas, for example, the attorney general is talking about suing, is suing, to get access to women’s medical records. That’s not sustainable for us as a country, and it has to change.”
The remarks, made in a Philadelphia suburb, were notable as Harris looks to cement support among suburban female voters.
Harris works to earn Pennsylvania’s Republican votes alongside Liz Cheney
Harris is doing a series of moderated conversations with former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in suburban cities in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday.
While in Pennsylvania, Harris and Cheney worked to pick off Republicans disaffected with their party’s nominee who may vote for the vice president and focus on the dangers Trump poses to the country and to democracy.
“There are months in the history of our country which challenge us, each of us, to really decide when we stand for those things that we talk about, including, in particular, country over party,” Harris said.
Cheney, a staunch Trump critic who endorsed Harris in September despite their party and policy differences, said “every single thing in my experience and in my background has played a part” in her supporting Harris.
“In this race, we have the opportunity to vote for and support somebody you can count on. We’re not always going to agree, but I know Vice President Harris will always do what she believes is right for this country. She has a sincere heart, and that’s why I’m honored to be in this place.”
Read more about Harris and Cheney’s events here.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow
Trump appears on The Undertaker’s podcast
Trump continued his alternative media outreach effort by sitting down for a podcast interview with retired pro wrestler Mark Calaway, also known as “The Undertaker.”
During the podcast, Trump repeated his anti-trans rhetoric, promising to not allow “men playing in women’s sports” as Calaway brought up his teenage quarterback daughter.
“You don’t want to go and wrestle a guy like if you were doing that, because people do that — like your father — right? He’s a little too much to handle,” Trump said to Calaway’s daughter, who was present for the interview, after Calaway asked him about Title IX..
“I will get rid of it fast. Men playing in women’s sports is insane,” Trump said.
Republicans have invested heavily in ads targeting the transgender community this cycle.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh
Walz on what he’d do differently from the Biden admin and appealing to voters
Tim Walz joined ABC’s “The View” on Monday, where he discussed what he would have done differently than the Biden-Harris administration — a questioned that Harris herself struggled with in her own appearance on the talk show.
The governor said that he wished one of their ticket’s proposals — an expansion on Medicare — “would have been proposed sooner.” He argued their campaign is focusing heavily on things like the care economy and child care affordability.
Walz also discussed how they can appeal to men and Black voters, two voting blocks where Trump is having success.
“As as vice president says, we have a responsibility to earn the votes from everyone and not make the assumption that men or women are going to be with us. I hear oftentimes about the Black community. Why would we assume that they were with us, unless we’re putting out proposals that positively impact their life?” Walz said.
He argued that they are trying to make voters aware of their proposals on housing, child care, small businesses and more.
Trump won’t denounce violence against FEMA workers during North Carolina stop
Trump toured devastation caused by Hurricane Helene just outside Asheville, North Carolina, and later delivered remarks to the press where he began by slamming the job from the White House for their hurricane response, continuing to push false claims about FEMA assistance in the wake of violence against FEMA workers.
“The power of nature. Nothing you can do about it, but you got to get a little bit better crew in to do a better job than has been done by the White House. It’s been not good. Not good. I’m here today in western North Carolina to express a simple message to the incredible people of the state, I’m with you, and the American people are with you all the way,” Trump said.
Later, he pushed false claims about the allocation of FEMA assistance, once again falsely saying that money dedicated to hurricane relief was going to offer assistance to migrants unaffected by the storm.
“FEMA has done a very poor job … They had spent hundreds of millions of dollars doing other things, things that I don’t think bear any relationship to this money, there was, they were not supposed to be spending the money on taking in illegal migrants, maybe so they could vote in the election. Because that’s what a lot of people are saying. That’s why they’re doing it,” Trump falsely said.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Soorin Kim
Sen. Bernie Sanders to join Biden in New Hampshire
In a strategic visit to boost Democrats’ presence in the purple state ahead of the election, President Joe Biden will be joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Tuesday in New Hampshire to talk about lowering the cost of prescription drugs, a senior administration official told ABC News.
The president is also expected to stop by a New Hampshire Democratic Party campaign office to support Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the official said.
The economy and costs are a top issue to voters in New Hampshire, polling shows, and Sanders, who made the high price of U.S. health care a central point of both his presidential campaigns, is a popular figure in the state, which neighbors his own.
Sanders and Biden will discuss new data on savings brought about by the administration’s hallmark Inflation Reduction Act, the senior official said. The act implemented significant price caps for Medicare enrollees, including a $35 cap on insulin already in effect and a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug costs that kicks in in 2025. The White House estimates the caps will bring about cost savings of $400 per year for nearly 19 million seniors.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Tim Walz to join ABC’s ‘The View’
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Harris’ running mate, will join ABC’s “The View” on Monday.
His interview comes after Harris herself appeared on the show as part of a media blitz earlier this month.
Walz recently quipped on Trump’s visit to a McDonald’s on Sunday as part of his mockery of Harris’ past employment there. Walz said he took “full responsibility” for the campaign stop after he once joked he couldn’t imagine the former president working a McFlurry machine.
Harris, Cheney to make the case to disaffected Republican voters
Harris is stumping with former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney on Monday in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. The two will hold a moderated conversation in each of the “blue wall” states.
Cheney endorsed Harris in early September, warning Trump posed a threat to democracy after what happened on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Donald Trump was willing to sacrifice our capitol to allow law enforcement officers to be beaten and brutalized in his name and to violate the law and the Constitution in order to seize power for himself,” Cheney said at her first joint appearance with Harris earlier this month.
“I don’t care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent, that is depravity, and we must never become numb to it,” she continued. “Any person who would do these things can never be trusted with power again. We must defeat Donald Trump on Nov. 5.”
Trump to survey hurricane damage before rally in North Carolina
At noon, Trump will survey devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina.
He’ll later hold a 3 p.m. rally in Greenville before a 6:30 p.m. meeting with faith leaders in Concord.
Trump has criticized the Biden-Harris response to the storm, and spread misinformation about the federal government’s recovery efforts and assistance. Such misinformation, Biden and other officials have said, is harming those who need assistance and resulting in threats against FEMA workers.
Polls show close race between Harris, Trump
The latest polling averages from 538 show the two candidates running even in key swing states Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Trump, meanwhile, has a slight lead over Harris in Georgia and Arizona.
Overall, 538’s national polling average shows Harris ahead by just 1.8%.
(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday will forge ahead with a vote on his government funding plan despite it being expected to fail.
“We’ll see what happens with the bill,” Johnson told reporters. “The quarterback’s calling the play. We’re going to run the play. I’m very confident.”
Johnson’s measure would fund the government for six months but also includes the SAVE Act, a bill backed by GOP leadership and former President Donald Trump that would require individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to vote. Democrats have said the legislation is a non-starter, noting it is already illegal for non-citizens to cast a ballot in federal elections.
Johnson was set to try to pass the funding plan last week but pulled it from the floor because he didn’t have the votes.
Some Republicans in his caucus oppose the measure because they say it would contribute to the deficit while defense hawks say they won’t vote for it because the six-month extension would effect the Department of Defense’s readiness.
Still, he’s dug in on the measure and is not talking about what the next steps should be if it fails. Congress needs to pass a funding measure before Oct. 1 to avoid a shutdown.
Trump has openly called for Republicans to let the government close if they don’t pass the SAVE Act. He wrote on his social media platform that if they “don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET.”
Asked about Trump’s comments that Republicans should let funding lapse in such a scenario, Johnson responded “No, look, President Trump and I have talked a lot about this. We talked a lot about it with our colleagues who are building consensus on the plan. We all believe that election security is of preeminent importance right now.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s top Republican, said it would be “politically beyond stupid” to allow a shutdown to take place with just seven weeks until Election Day.
“I think we first have to wait and see what the House sends us. My only observation about this whole discussion is the one thing you cannot have is a government shutdown,” McConnell said. “It’d be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election, because certainly we’d get the blame.”
Democrats have urged Johnson to drop his funding plan and bring a clean short-term measure to the floor to keep the government open.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters last week that the only path forward is a bipartisan agreement that does not include “extreme” measures, such as the SAVE Act.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday also urged the House to pass a clean bill.
“In order to avoid a shutdown, the worst thing our colleagues in the House can do right now is waste time on proposals that don’t have broad bipartisan support,” Schumer said.
ABC News’ Allison Pecorin, Mariam Khan and Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
