2024 election updates: Harris, Trump in virtual dead heat in battleground states
ABC NEWS/MICHAEL LE BRECHT II
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — 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.
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) — Russia and Iran are using artificial intelligence to influence the American election, U.S. intelligence officials said on Monday.
“Foreign actors are using AI to more quickly and convincingly tailor synthetic content,” an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said. “The IC (intelligence community) considers AI a malign influence, accelerant, not yet a revolutionary influence tool.”
Officials saw AI being used in overseas elections, but it has now made its way to American elections, according to intelligence officials, who says there is evidence Russian manipulated Vice President Kamala Harris’ speeches.
Russia “has generated the most AI content related to the election, and has done so across all four mediums, text, images, audio and video,” an ODNI official said.
“These items include AI generated content of and about prominent U.S. figures whose content is also consistent with Russia’s broader efforts to boost the former president’s candidacy and denigrate the Vice President and the Democratic Party, including through conspiratorial Americans,” according to an ODNI official.
Russian AI content has sought to exploit hot-button issues to further divide Americans, the ODNI said.
“The IC also assesses that Russian influence actors were responsible for altering videos of the vice president’s speeches,” the official said.
Russia’s altering of videos runs the “gamut” from painting her in a personal bad light, and compared to her opponent and they are using both AI and staged videos, the official said.
The country was targeting President Joe Biden’s former campaign, but once he dropped out of the race it had to “adapt” to targeting the vice president’s campaign, the official said.
“Russia is a much more sophisticated actor in the influence space in general, and they have a better understanding of how U.S. elections work and where to target and what state what states to target,” an ODNI official said.
Iran has also used AI in its election influence efforts, including help in writing fake social media posts and news articles to further Iran’s objectives, which are to denigrate the former President Donald Trump’s candidacy, the official said.
Iran is also using AI to sow discord on hot-button issues, an official said.
“One of the benefits of generative AI models is to overcome various language barriers, and so Iran can use the tools to help do that, and so one of the issues that could be attractive or using foreign language for that is immigration,” an ODNI official said. “The reason why Iran is focused on immigration is because they perceive it to be a divisive issue in the United States, and they identify themes, and this is broadly speaking, they identify themes with which they think will create further discord the United States.”
Officials have previously assessed Iran prefers that Vice President Harris win the 2024 election.
China has also been using AI to generate fake news anchors and social media content with pro-China propaganda, they said.
The intelligence community assesses that AI is an “accelerant” to influence operations, but doesn’t yet have the capability to be believable.
Adversaries are also using AI to go back and forth with people in the comments.
As to whether what occurred in 2020 might happen again — where the election might not be called on Election Day — this period is something the IC is “watching” closely and is of “great interest.”
“The various influence actors have fairly steady state influence operations that seek the stoking of division and undermine U.S. democracy,” an ODNI official said.
During the Democratic primaries, the use of an AI generated robocall was used to give misinformation about voting the result was state criminal charges being brought against the individual who sent the recording and an FCC fine.
A foreign adversary engaging in that tactic would be a “top concern” for intelligence officials, an official said.
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump distanced himself from Project 2025 on the campaign trail but has since nominated several authors or contributors from the controversial conservative presidential wishlist to his administration.
Trump called the Project 2025 policy proposals — which include restrictions on abortion pills, birth control pills and Medicare access, as well as eliminating a couple of federal agencies — “extreme, seriously extreme” in a July 20 rally.
“I don’t know anything about it. I don’t want to know anything about it,” he previously said, despite having many connections to its authors and contributors.
Democrats pounced on Trump for Project 2025 during the election season, calling it a warning of what is to come under a second Trump term.
“Project 2025 is the plan by Donald Trump’s MAGA Republican allies to give Trump more power over your daily life, gut democratic checks and balances, and consolidate power in the Oval Office if he wins,” the Biden campaign stated.
Project 2025 is an over 900-page playbook of policy proposals created by conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation intended to guide the next conservative administration. The organization behind the document told ABC News in a past statement that it was not intended to speak for any candidate during the election.
Project 2025 and Trump’s Agenda47 share similarities — including proposals to eliminate the Department of Education, increase fossil fuel energy production, and begin mass deportations.
At the ABC News debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump reiterated his earlier sentiment on the project. “This was a group of people that got together, they came up with some ideas, I guess some good, some bad, but it makes no difference. I have nothing to do [with it].”
Now, several Project 2025 authors and contributors are not just connected to Trump, but also nominated for roles in his administration.
Russ Vought, who authored a chapter on “Executive Office of the President” for Project 2025’s “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is also under consideration for a cabinet-level position in the next administration and has been vetted by Trump’s transition team, sources told ABC News. He was also the RNC platform committee’s policy director.
Here’s a look at which Project 2025 contributors may have a place in the incoming Trump administration:
Brendan Carr
Brendan Carr, Trump’s nomination for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, is credited as the author of Project 2025’s FCC recommendations which include: a ban on TikTok, restrictions on social media moderation, and more.
Carr would be tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Trump has suggested that he would expand the White House’s influence over the FCC and potentially punish TV networks that cover him in a way he doesn’t like.
Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel and as the senior Republican for the FCC. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission.
John Ratcliffe
Ratcliffe, listed as a contributor who assisted “in the development and writing” of Project 2025, has been nominated to serve as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Ratcliffe is a three-term Republican congressman from Texas and served as the director of national intelligence from mid-2020 until the end of Trump’s first term.
Project 2025’s Intelligence Community chapter, credited to The Heritage Foundation’s intelligence research fellow Dustin J. Carmack, notes that the “CIA’s success depends on firm direction from the President and solid internal CIA Director–appointed leadership. Decisive senior leaders must commit to carrying out the President’s agenda and be willing to take calculated risks.”
Tom Homan
Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom Homan has been designated as Trump’s “border czar” — which is not an official Cabinet position.
Homan, who is expected to be in charge of the mass deportations promised by the Trump campaign, is listed as a contributor to Project 2025 who assisted in its “development and writing.”
Project 2025’s Department of Homeland Security chapter, credited to Trump’s former Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli, calls for full use of ICE’s “expedited removal” authority and further development of immigrant detention spaces. This all aligns with Trump’s immigration proposals on mass deportations and funds for the construction of detention centers.
Other links to Project 2025
Christopher Miller is credited with the project’s Department of Defense recommendations. Miller served as Acting Secretary of Defense and Special Assistant to the President under Trump from November 2020 to January 2021.
Ben Carson is credited with the project’s Housing and Urban Development recommendations. He served as the Secretary of HUD under Trump’s first administration.
Adam Candeub is credited with the project’s Federal Trade Commission recommendations. He served under the Trump administration as Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Telecommunications and Information.
Bernard L. McNamee is credited with recommendations on the Department of Energy and Related Commissions. He was nominated to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission by Trump in October 2018.
Cuccinelli — who wrote the Department of Homeland Security section — was also part of Trump’s former administration as the Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security.
The RNC platform committee’s Deputy Policy Director Ed Martin is also president of the Eagle Forum Education & Legal Defense Fund, which is listed on the project’s advisory board.
Others connected to Trump, including Trump’s United Nations Commission on the Status of Women appointee Lisa Correnti, are listed among the contributors.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As controversy continues to cloud some of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks, his team has an ominous warning for Republicans who don’t fall in line behind his nominees.
ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl reports that one senior Trump adviser said the message to lawmakers is, “If you are on the wrong side of the vote, you’re buying yourself a primary.”
“That is all,” the adviser told Karl. “And there’s a guy named Elon Musk who is going to finance it.”
“The president gets to decide his Cabinet. No one else,” the adviser added.
The threat came as Matt Gaetz and Pete Hegseth (tapped for attorney general and defense secretary, respectively) made the rounds on Capitol Hill this week to shore up support. They were escorted by Vice President-elect JD Vance, the junior senator from Ohio.
Gaetz announced Thursday afternoon he was withdrawing his name from consideration, stating his confirmation bid was “unfairly becoming a distraction.”
Gaetz faces allegations of sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, which he’s long denied, that was the subject of a federal investigation and a House Ethics Committee probe. Hegseth has been accused of sexual assaulting a woman in 2017, an encounter Hegseth told police was consensual.
Trump stood firm with the selections, which also raised eyebrows for their relative lack of experience to lead the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense. Trump said it was ultimately Gaetz’s choice to withdraw.
Some of the president-elect’s other picks have similarly faced scrutiny over their qualifications, including Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of Health and Human Services.
Trump previously made a demand for Republican leadership to back so-called “recess appointments” to skirt the traditional confirmation process. That route would require lawmakers to adjourn and for senators to give up the “advice and consent” role they play in nominations, as laid out in the Constitution.
But his demand is being met with some resistance from some Senate Republicans.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a senior Republican and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said recess appointments for Cabinet posts should be “absolutely off the table.”
“And quite honestly, any serious candidate for Cabinet-level position, I would really have to wonder if they would want it or be willing to accept it under a recess,” Tillis said. “These positions are too important. They carry too much weight internationally to take a short cut.”
Several senators have said they want the full “process” and vetting of candidates to play out.
Sen. Josh Hawley said on Wednesday his intention to vote for all nominees.
“The Constitution gives us a role in personnel called advice and consent. My view is that’s exactly what will unfold here when these nominees are actually sent forward, and we’ll treat them like we’ve treated all others with the proper vetting,” said longtime Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who recently stepped down from the role.
