Trump and Biden both call for smooth transition in historic Oval Office meeting

(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%.

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(FLINT, Mich.) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday took aim at Vice President Kamala Harris’ family life, saying the presidential candidate “doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”

The governor said during a rally for former President Donald Trump that her children are a “permanent reminder of what’s important” and they “keep me humble.”

“You can walk into a room like this where people cheer when you step onto the stage and you might think for a second that you’re kind of special,” Huckabee Sanders told a crowd in Flint, Michigan. “Then you go home, and your kids remind you very quickly you’re actually not that big of a deal.”

She added, “So my kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”

Whether politicians have biological children has become a partisan issue in recent weeks, following comments made by Sen. JD Vance, who is running alongside Trump. In a resurfaced interview from 2021, Vance argued that voters without children should be subject to a higher tax rate.

Vance also in 2021 took aim at Harris, saying she was among a group of “childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made.” Speaking to Fox News, Vance accused that group of wanting “to make the rest of the country miserable too.”

When Taylor Swift endorsed Harris earlier this month, the pop star signed her endorsement with “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady.”

Harris is the stepmother of two adult children, Cole and Ella Emhoff, from the first marriage of her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

“Cole and Ella keep us inspired to make the world a better place,” Kerstin Emhoff, their mother, said on social media in response to Huckabee Sanders.

She added, “Kamala Harris has spent her entire career working for the people, ALL families. That keeps you pretty humble.”

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(RALEIGH, N.C.) — As North Carolinians continue to recover from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene, early voting begins Thursday in the critical swing state.

State election officials expect a majority of North Carolina voters to cast their ballot in-person over the next two weeks, with early voting concluding on Nov. 2.

More than 400 early voting sites are in operation across the state’s 100 counties.

“To have almost all early voting sites open after such a devastating storm is an effort all North Carolinians should be proud of,” North Carolina State Board of Elections executive director Karen Brinson Bell said Tuesday.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris remain neck-and-neck in the critical swing state, with Trump holding a 0.4% lead over Harris in 538’s polling average for the state.

Both candidates have visited North Carolina since the remnants of Hurricane Helene brought deadly floods to the state, where 95 people died and 92 remain missing. Trump has repeatedly made false claims about the federal response to the disaster, claiming that the state would be deprived of emergency aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency because of undocumented immigrants.

“They got hit with a very bad hurricane, especially North Carolina and parts of Georgia. But North Carolina really got hit. I’ll tell you what, those people should never vote for a Democrat, because they held back aid,” Trump said during an interview last week.

While visiting a church in Greenville, North Carolina, on Sunday, Harris stopped short of naming Trump while criticizing the spread of disinformation about the relief efforts in the state.

“Right now, fellow Americans are experiencing some of the most difficult moments in their lives,” Harris said. “Yet instead of offering hope, there are those who are channeling people’s tragedies and sorrows into grievance and hatred, and one may ask why, and I think, sadly, frankly, the motives are quite transparent: to gain some advantage for themselves, to play politics with other people’s heartbreak.”

With recovery efforts ongoing, election officials have expressed optimism about the state’s early voting plans. In the 25 western counties included in the federal disaster declaration, 76 early voting sites have been confirmed — four fewer than originally planned.

“We lost just a few despite the extensive damage, loss of power, water, internet and phone service, and the washing out of roads throughout the region,” said Brinson Bell.

In past presidential elections, the majority of the state’s voters have cast their ballot during early in-person voting, with 65% using that method in 2020 and 62% in 2016. Election officials expect a similar portion of voters to vote early in person, and have enacted a series of measures to improve voting access in the counties hardest hit by Helene.

Voters in the impacted counties can drop off their absentee ballot at any early voting site throughout the state, and the state plans to deploy “multipartisan assistance teams” that can assist with absentee voting at disaster shelters.

This will also be the first presidential election where voters will need to provide photo identification to vote, after lawsuits delayed implementation of the state’s controversial voter ID law following its passage in 2018. Voters can provide a drivers’ license, student ID, or passport to vote, though exceptions are permitted in the case of natural disasters.

The only county to offer fewer early voting sites is hard-hit Buncombe County, whose officials opted to reduce their number of sites from 14 to 10 because of the ongoing emergency response.

“Our office has been preparing for the 2024 election for years, but we certainly didn’t expect this,” said Buncombe County director of election services Corinne Duncan.

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