Tough votes on Trump Cabinet picks could pose big risks for midterm Senate candidates
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(WASHINGTON) — Lawmakers running for reelection loathe tough votes. And for senators up in purple states in two years, those tough votes are coming early.
President-elect Donald Trump is moving at a lightning pace to stock up his administration, mixing in conventional picks like Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state with controversial moves like putting up Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for health and human services secretary. For frontline senators who hold the key to the next Senate majority, navigating their confirmations will be a minefield.
Republicans will be defending the seats of North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and Maine Sen. Susan Collins, while Democrats will be working to protect Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and Michigan Sen. Gary Peters. Their confirmation votes for Trump’s Cabinet picks offer a chance to prove bipartisan bona fides, but backing a nominee who is too controversial risks opening them up to attack in races that could be decided by razor-thin margins.
“If they’re smart, then it’s a major factor. The midterms are still a ways off. Generally, voters have short attention spans, and so it’s debatable how much of this stuff they’re going to remember. But I think it’s uniquely important for people who may take heat from the right,” said one GOP strategist.
Some of Trump’s nominees are not anticipated to run into significant roadblocks.
Rubio has already received praise from some Democratic senators, and members of the chamber are often given some degree of deference when facing confirmation to Cabinet positions. Waltz and Ratcliffe may face tighter margins than Rubio but are also considered to be among Trump’s more conventional picks.
But Gaetz and Kennedy, along with Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick to be director of national intelligence, and Fox News host Pete Hegseth, named to run the Pentagon, will likely enjoy no Democratic support at all. With Republicans winning a maximum of 53 Senate seats this month, that leaves their margin for error small if they hope to be confirmed.
Already, Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski have sounded skeptical notes about some of Trump’s choices, and other Republicans, including Tillis, have remained noncommittal.
The pressure will be on for Republicans, though.
Trump won a comprehensive victory, and before he announced his more controversial cabinet picks, Republicans on Capitol Hill were touting the need for unity as they prepared to take over a unified government in January.
Collins is considered to be in a league of her own, sources said. A senior Republican who’s likely one of the few candidates, if not the only one, who can win her state, she’s expected to have especially wide latitude to oppose a candidate she deems unfit.
And with a base in such lockstep with Trump, any defiance from other GOP lawmakers could trigger outrage from the famously mercurial president-elect — fury that could in turn result in a primary challenge, and not just for swing-staters like Tillis.
At the same time, supporting a controversial nominee who pushes the envelope too far once confirmed risks becoming a general election issue.
“There will be Trump voters who remember how Republican senators handle these nominations. And so, I do think that for senators who are up this cycle, the base is watching how they handle Trump’s nominees,” the Republican strategist said.
“Any of these other safe-state Republicans who are in cycle, it’s within Trump’s power to cause problems for them on the right, if he chooses to,” the person added.
Still, underscoring the catch-22, any votes for nominees deemed too controversial could end up in ads from their ultimate Democratic opponents labeling them a “rubber stamp” for Trump, the source warned.
The pressure is on for House members, too.
House members will not have a vote in the confirmation process, but they will inevitably field a slate of questions about nominees like Gaetz. Those running in purple districts could opt to punt, noting their lack of a vote, or they could knock the more controversial contenders, also risking blowback from Trump.
“I would try and push it to the Senate first and see if you get away with that. And if you don’t get away with that, then I would strongly advise to stand by your principles and not to end up going down a path for someone else that you didn’t choose for yourself,” said William O’Reilly, a GOP strategist in New York, home to many endangered House Republicans. “Loyalty goes so far, the public is looking for legislators that have a little bit of backbone and common sense.”
Democrats are also in a pickle of their own.
Ossoff and Peters are Senate Democrats’ top frontline members up in 2026. Offering support to some of Trump’s picks like Rubio, Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., for national security adviser and former Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, for CIA director, could bolster their bipartisan bona fides. But going too far risks turning off Democrats, a major risk when they’ll need every single supporter energized in states Trump won this month.
“Waltz, Ratcliffe and Rubio, if you’re Ossoff and you vote for them, independent voters see you’re a straight shooter, and he can claim he’s bipartisan, because he was,” said one Georgia Democratic strategist. “And then he says, ‘look, I voted for everybody except Gabbard on his national security team.'”
To be certain, there are several other factors at play across the key midterm races. Incumbents’ opponents are far from finalized, the midterms will take place almost two years after confirmation votes start in January, and some nominees might not even make it to a vote.
But already, the knives are out.
“President Trump and JD Vance are going to be running the Senate,” Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Trump ally, said on Fox Business this week. “If you want to get in the way, fine. But we’re gonna try to get you out of the Senate, too, if you try to do that.”
(GEORGIA) — Gabriel Sterling, the Chief Operations Officer of Georgia’s office of Secretary of State, noted in a statement on X that early votes cast Wednesday set a record for a second day.
“So, with the rest of today and absentees we could get close to 600,000 votes cast in Georgia. We continue on the record-setting pace and we are thankful for our election workers at the counties and our voters,” he said.
On the previous day, 312,206 people cast an early vote, shattering the 136,000 votes cast in the first day of early voting in 2002, according to state election data.
Sterling said earlier in the day that the 500,000 votes cast mark represented 10% of the turnout in the 2020 election.
As of Wednesday night, 33,359 absentee ballots have been returned and 33,150 of those ballots were accepted, according to the secretary of state’s office.
Georgia is seen as a crucial swing state for the presidential race, with both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have been actively campaigning throughout neighborhoods in the state.
Voting rights advocates have been pushing voters to choose the early voting option due to concerns about new rules including one that makes it harder to cast a provisional ballot on Election Day if a voter is sent to the wrong polling place. Georgia voters can choose any early voting election site in their county, according to state law.
Early voting in Georgia will continue until Nov. 1.
(WASHINGTON) — Domestic violent extremists will pose “the most significant physical threat to government officials, voters, and elections-related personnel and infrastructure, including polling places, ballot drop box locations, voter registration sites, campaign events, political party offices, and vote counting sites,” according to a Department of Homeland Security assessment released on Wednesday.
DHS believes that extremists will be motivated by policy grievances, which have also led to an uptick in the targeting of election officials.
The overall threat environment in the United States “will remain high,” according to the department’s annual threat assessment.
“The Homeland faces a complex set of threats to our public safety, border security, critical infrastructure, and economy from violent extremists, transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), adversarial nation-states, and malicious cyber actors,” the 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment says.
“The Homeland Security Assessment provides an important overview of the dynamic and evolving threat landscape, illustrating just how varied and challenging the threats we confront are,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. “It is because of the remarkable DHS workforce, and our close collaboration with our federal, state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector partners, that we are able to meet the challenges and keep the American people safe and secure.”
The assessment, produced by the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, said that threats from domestic actors will “continue to be characterized primarily by lone offenders or small cells motivated to violence by a combination of racial, religious, gender, or anti-government grievances; conspiracy theories; and personalized factors,” and be motivated by the Presidential Election and the Israel/Hamas conflict.
“Between September 2023 and July 2024, [domestic violent extremists] driven by various anti-government, racial, or gender-related motivations have conducted at least four attacks in the Homeland, one of which resulted in a death.7 US law enforcement disrupted at least seven additional DVE plots,” according to the assessment. “Two HVE attacks, partially motivated by the Israel-HAMAS conflict, also occurred during this timeframe, and law enforcement disrupted at least three other HVE plots.”
Mass shootings in the United States over the “last year were not motivated by an ideology, but were rather associated with suspected or confirmed mental illness or driven by relationship grievances,” the Department assesses.
DHS officials said that they are aware that the upcoming anniversary of Oct. 7th may add “even more fuel to an already challenging and heightened threat environment.”
The officials, on a call with reporters, said they’ve communicated this to their state and local partners.
Foreign terrorist organizations also maintain a threat to conduct or inspire attacks in the United States, the assessment said.
“These organizations maintain worldwide networks of supporters that could target the Homeland. FTO media outlets promote violent rhetoric intended to inspire U.S. persons to mobilize to violence, while foreign terrorists continue engaging online supporters to solicit funds; create and share media; and encourage followers to attack the Homeland, U.S. interests, and what they perceive as the West,” the report said.
Iran is also a concern for DHS officials, who say that they have threatened former U.S. government officials including former President Donald Trump.
“We’ve been very, very clear that is a threat vector that we are extremely concerned about and monitoring very closely, working to gain as much information and fidelity on as we possibly can,” the official said.
In addition to Iran, China and Russia also “pose a host of threats” to the United States and will attempt to use a blend of subversive, undeclared, criminal, and coercive tactics to seek new opportunities to undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions and domestic social cohesion.
The department has concluded, as intelligence agencies have, they will likely attempt to interfere in the election.
It’s not just the election; DHS assesses that nation state backed “criminal hacktivists” will attempt to position themselves on critical infrastructure networks.
Along the southern border, DHS assesses that the challenges will continue, including from Individuals on the terror watchlist who the report says will evolve their tactics and try and exploit vulnerabilities along the border.
The official noted that the number of suspects encountered on the terror watch list have also decreased from year to year.
The encounters do remain high, the assessment notes, but due to the recently policies put in place, they are decreasing.
(WASHINGTON) — With just six weeks until Election Day, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are campaigning in battleground states on Wednesday.
Vice President Kamala Harris is delivering remarks on the economy — a key 2024 issue that polls show Trump leading on with voters — in Pennsylvania. Later this week, she will travel to Arizona for some campaign events and to visit the southern border, according to a source familiar with her plans.
Trump will speak in North Carolina, a state Democrats are eyeing to flip this cycle. Trump is returning to the state as controversy engulfs the Republican nominee for governor, Mark Robinson, who Trump previously supported.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Trump to deliver remarks to reporters in New York
In a last-minute addition to his schedule, Trump’s campaign announced that he will deliver remarks Thursday at Trump Tower at 4:30 p.m. ET.
The campaign didn’t disclose the topic of his remarks, but they will happen on the same day that New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with five counts connected to improper campaign contributions, according to a sweeping indictment unsealed Thursday morning.
This weekend, Trump will campaign in Michigan and Wisconsin.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Describing her decision not to take the stage at the Republican National Convention, Melania Trump pointed to the letter she penned following Trump’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“It was my decision. I think was just the time. I think was the right time in, days before I wrote a beautiful letter to America, yes. And I think in one way, that letter was my speech,” she said in an interview that aired on Fox & Friends on Thursday morning.
Like her husband, Melania Trump blamed rhetoric from Democrats and people in the media as reasonings for why she feels there has been targeted violence against the former president.
“This is not normal, and is it really shocking that all this outrageous violence goes against my husband? Especially that we hear the leaders from the opposition party and mainstream media branding him as threat to democracy, calling him vile names,” she said. “They’re only fueling a toxic atmosphere and giving power to all of these people that they want to do harm to him. This needs to stop. This needs to stop. The country needs to unite.”
Recounting the moments she heard about Trump’s first assassination attempt, Melania Trump said that she couldn’t get ahold of Trump or the Secret Service initially.
“First, the Secret Service was not available too, because they were with him, right? And then after that, I got the Secret Service on the phone, and they said that he’s OK. We are in on the way to the hospital,” she said.
She also talked about having to tell their son, Barron, about the attack.
“He was outside playing sport, and he rushed in, and was very, very difficult,” she said.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Melania Trump advocates for 2nd Trump term in 1st interview of 2024 cycle
Former first lady Melania Trump, sitting down for an interview with Fox & Friends, attempted to pitch her husband to voters.
“I think American people need to decide what they really want. Maybe some, you know, strong tweets, but everything else great for this country. So it’s all in Americans people’s hands on Nov. 5,” she said, arguing her husband was a strong leader in terms of the economy and immigration.
Despite her lack of a role on the campaign, Melania Trump said that she supports her husband’s third bid to the White House.
“I know how passionate he is to make America great again,” she said.
Melania Trump was also asked some personal questions about her relationship with Trump.
“Did you fall in love then?” co-host Ainsley Earhardt asked after Melania Trump described meeting Donald Trump for the first time.
“It was a connection. It was a connection,” Melania Trump responded.
“His being,” she later said when asked what she loves most about Trump. “His humor, his personality, his kindness, he’s, he’s very special, his positivity, his energy. It’s unbelievable. Yeah, so we have a beautiful relationship.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
More details of Harris’ planned visit to border revealed
An aide to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign provided more details about the vice president’s planned visit to the border in Arizona on Friday.
Harris will visit the border city of Douglas, and deliver remarks on border security, according to the aide. She will also talk about her intention to introduce a tough bipartisan border security plan and criticize former President Donald Trump for killing the one introduced over the summer.
Harris releases economic policy book
Vice President Kamala Harris released her roughly 80-page economic policy book on Wednesday and outlined it in a speech in Pittsburgh.
Harris spoke at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh and framed her proposals into three pillars: “lowering costs, investing in American innovation and leading the world in industries of tomorrow.”
She also highlighted her plans for American manufacturing.
“The simple truth is, in America, it takes too long and it costs too much to build. Whether it’s a new housing development, a new factory or a new bridge, projects take too long to go from concept to reality,” Harris said. “It happens in blue states, it happens in red states, and it’s a national problem. And I will tell you this, China is not moving slowly. They’re not, and we can’t afford to either. If we are to compete, we can’t afford to either.”
She attacked former President Donald Trump’s record, calling him “one of the biggest losers ever on manufacturing.”
“Just yesterday, he went out and promised to bring back manufacturing jobs. And if that sounds familiar, it should, in 2016 he went out and made that very same promise about the Carrier plant in Indianapolis,” she said.
“You’ll remember, Carrier then offshored hundreds of jobs to Mexico under his watch. And it wasn’t just there. On Trump’s watch, offshoring went up and manufacturing jobs went down across our country and across our economy,” Harris said.
Harris outlines her ‘pragmatic’ economic vision
Harris drew contrasts between her economic agenda and that of her opponent, Trump, in a speech in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
Harris told an audience at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh that her economic philosophy is “rooted in her middle-class upbringing” while Trump’s comes from a “gilded path to wealth.”
“For Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers. Not those who build them. Not those who wire them. Not those who mop the floors,” she said.
Harris has made the economy and the cost of living a focal point of her campaign in recent weeks.
To allow the middle class to be the “growth engine of our economy,” Harris said she would cut taxes for middle class families and individuals, promising that more than 100 million Americans would get a middle-class tax break.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, and Will McDuffie
Trump takes aim at Iran after officials warn of foreign threats
Former President Donald Trump didn’t mince words Wednesday at a rally in North Carolina following more reports from security officials that Iran has been plotting to assassinate him.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence met with Trump and his campaign Tuesday, according to a spokesman for DNI. While the agency declined to discuss specifics about the meeting, the former president’s campaign said the meeting involved “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”
During his rally in Mint Hill, North Carolina, Trump echoed that statement and sent a stark warning to the country.
“If I were the president, I would inform the threatening country, in this case, Iran, that if you do anything to harm this person, we are going to blow your largest cities and the country itself to smithereens. We’re going to blow it to smithereens,” the former president said to cheers. “There would be no more threats.”
Biden adamant that he would have beaten Trump in rematch
President Joe Biden opened up on the whirlwind of events over the last couple of months during an appearance on “The View” Wednesday.
Biden said he is “at peace” with his decision to exit the 2024 race but says he is still confident he would have defeated Donald Trump in November.
“Look, when I ran for this last term, I said I saw myself as a transition president … But what happened was we were having so much success in getting things done that people felt we couldn’t get done, I found myself having used more time than I would’ve ordinarily to, you know, pass that torch.”
Biden then turned to praising Harris, who he called “tough” and “honorable.”
“And the thing I like about her, and one thing we share in common, is that we have an optimistic view of the future,” he said.
Family of Corey Comperatore, injured supporters to attend Trump’s Butler rally
Trump’s Butler, Pennsylvania, rally will take place at the same site where his first assassination attempt took place.
The wife and daughters of Corey Comperatore, the man who was killed during the assassination attempt, are expected to attend Trump’s Butler rally along with the two supporters who were injured during the shooting: David Dutch and James Copenhaver, according to a senior campaign official.
“During his visit, President Trump will honor the memory of Corey Comperatore, who heroically sacrificed his life to shield his wife and daughters from the bullets on that terrible day. President Trump will also recognize the two other Americans who were wounded by the shooter, David Dutch and James Copenhaver,” the campaign said in a press release.
Trump will also “express his deep gratitude to law enforcement and first responders, and thank the entire community for their outpouring of love and support in the wake of the attack,” the campaign said.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh
Comer launches investigation into Zelenskyy’s trip to Pennsylvania
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer launched an investigation into the Biden-Harris administration for allowing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to fly on a military plane to Pennsylvania earlier this week.
“The Committee seeks to determine whether the Biden-Harris Administration attempted to use a foreign leader to benefit Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign and, if so, necessarily committed an abuse of power,” Comer said in a statement Wednesday.
The committee sent letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and White House Counsel Edward Siskel. Chairman Comer is requesting documents, information and communications about Zelenskyy’s visit to the U.S. in September.
-ABC News’ Lauren Peller
Trump stumps in North Carolina, Vance in Michigan
Trump will deliver remarks in Mint Hill, North Carolina, at 1 p.m. He will speak about the economy, according to a campaign release.
Later, his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, will speak in Travers City, Michigan. The event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
Harris to outline ‘pragmatic’ view on the economy to voters
As Harris seeks to gain ground on the economy, she will outline on Wednesday what her campaign is calling a “pragmatic” view on the issue.
Harris plans to tell voters that “as a capitalist she understands the limitations of government” and that the government must “work in partnership with the private sector and entrepreneurs,” according to the senior official, granted anonymity to preview Harris’s speech. The official noted Harris will make clear “she is unafraid to hold bad actors accountable if she needs to.”
The vice president will also argue that her economic philosophy is “rooted in her middle-class upbringing” and contrast that with Trump’s “gilded path to wealth,” as part of a larger values argument, the official said.
Harris to be interviewed by MSNBC
Harris is participating in an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday, which will air on the cable network on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, MSNBC announced Wednesday morning.
The network frames it as her first solo network interview since she became the nominee.
Harris has done solo interviews with other news outlets: radio stations and local TV stations. Her first media interview since announcing her candidacy took place last month when she did a joint interview with Tim Walz on CNN.
National Intelligence director briefs Trump about Iranian threats
Former President Donald Trump was briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence earlier Tuesday on Iran’s continued assassination threats against him, his campaign said in a new statement, calling the threats “real and specific.”
“Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote in the statement.
“He will let nothing stop him or get in his way to fight for the American people and to Make America Great Again,” Cheung continued.
Harris Arizona campaign office damaged by apparent gunfire for second time in one week: Police
A coordinated campaign office shared by Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign and the Democratic Party in Tempe, Arizona, was damaged by gunfire just after midnight on Monday, the police said Tuesday in a statement to ABC News.
“No one was inside the office during the overnight hours, but this raises concerns about the safety of those who work in that building, as well as those nearby,” Tempe Police spokesperson Sgt. Ryan Cook said.
Police said they received calls from those who worked in the office on Monday afternoon and arrived to what they said appeared to be gunshots through the front windows.
Tempe Police said they are analyzing evidence and were taking “additional measures” after the shooting “to ensure the safety of staff and others in the area.” A motive for the shooting has not yet been determined and the investigation continues, according to the police.
The same office was shot at just a week prior, on Sept. 16, in an incident the police said appeared to involve a BB or pellet gun. That shooting also happened just after midnight and caused “criminal damage,” according to the police.
Harris is scheduled to visit the state on Friday.
In response to the second incident, the Harris campaign offered its thanks to Tempe police.
“Overnight, several shots were fired into our Tempe Democratic Party coordinated campaign office. We are grateful to Tempe Police for coming quickly to the scene and are fortunate no one was present or injured,” read a statement from a campaign spokesperson
Trump, Harris to take part in separate town halls on Univision
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will participate in two town halls next month hosted by Univision where they will interact with undecided Hispanic voters and respond to questions.
Trump will headline the first town hall, which will take place in Miami on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 10 p.m. ET, the network announced.
Harris will headline the second Univision town hall, which will take place in Las Vegas on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 10 p.m. ET.
Both events will air coast-to-coast with Spanish-language translation on Univision and stream on ViX’s Noticias 24/7 channel and will also be available in English on Noticias Univision’s YouTube channel.
Mark Robinson hires Trump attorney who fought 2020 election results
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson announced Tuesday that he has hired lawyer Jesse Binnall to represent him in what he calls the “outrageous lies” following reporting by CNN that he posted racist and inflammatory comments on a porn site’s message board a decade ago.
Binnall is known for his representation of former President Donald Trump, including in legal cases involving Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Binnall still represents Trump in legal matters.
“I am confident that Binnall Law Group will leave no stone unturned and enable us to use every legal means to hold CNN accountable for their lies. In the meantime, my campaign remains laser-focused on the issues at stake in this election,” Robinson said in a statement.
Trump’s campaign and political action committees began paying Jesse Binnall’s law firms in November 2020, and they have paid nearly $6 million since.
This includes more than $823,000 paid so far this year by Trump’s Save America PAC and Make America Great Again PAC, which used to be his previous presidential campaign, according to campaign records.
Trump praises Sen. Manchin for not endorsing Harris
Former President Donald Trump is celebrating the decision from Independent Sen. Joe Manchin not to endorse Harris over her comments on considering eliminating the filibuster.
Manchin has not said whether or not he will endorse Trump.
“Congratulations to Senator Joe Manchin for not endorsing Radical Kamala Harris because of her DEATH WISH for the Filibuster and the Rule of Law,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Trump, in Georgia, hits on economy, immigration and more
In remarks in battleground Georgia focused on the economy and the tax code, Trump said dealing with immigration is first step in his economic plan.
In Savannah, Trump again said migrants with legal protected status in Springfield, Ohio, need to be deported and repeated his discriminatory and false argument that undocumented immigrants were stealing jobs from Black and Hispanic communities. He went on to call on local officials to “move the people back to the country from which they came.”
Trump spent much of his speech focused on increasing domestic production by tariffing other countries, telling Georgians they soon would be “stealing” jobs from other countries.
“Vote for Trump, and you will see a mass exodus of manufacturing from China to Pennsylvania, from Korea to North Carolina, from Germany to right here in Georgia, they’re going to come to Georgia, from Germany and a lot of other places,” he claimed.
“I’m outlining today, not only will we stop our businesses from leaving for foreign lands, but under my leadership, we’re going to take other countries’ jobs. Did you ever hear that expression before? Have you ever heard that? ‘We’re going to take other countries’ jobs.’ It’s never been stated before. We’re going to take their factories,” Trump claimed.
The former president also touched on Ukraine, just hours after President Joe Biden urged world leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly to never “waver” in support for Ukraine.
“I think that we’re stuck in that war unless I’m president. I’ll get it done. I’ll get it negotiated,” Trump claimed — a campaign pledge he often repeats but offers no specifics on how to accomplish.
Trump then seemingly praised Russia.
“That’s what they do, is they fight wars,” he said. “As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That’s what they do. They fight and it’s not pleasant.”
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Nebraska governor won’t call special session to change electoral votes system
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen released a statement Tuesday confirming he has “no plans” to call a special session before the November general election — meaning that the Republican-led effort to change the state electoral college to winner-take-all is tabled, for now.
“My team and I have worked relentlessly to secure a filibuster-proof 33-vote majority to get winner-take-all passed before the November election,” Pillen said. “Given everything at stake for Nebraska and our country, we have left every inch on the field to get this done.”
“Unfortunately, we could not persuade 33 state senators,” he added.
Pillen specifically cited opposition from state Sen. Mike McDonnell, who on Monday said he would not support such a change before the 2024 election.
The switch would have likely benefitted Trump and made the electoral map more difficult for Harris.
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd and Oren Oppenheim
Trump attacks Harris’ plan to visit the border
Trump is now weighing in on Harris’ plans to visit the southern border this Friday in Arizona, labelling the visit as “political” and accusing her of attempting to “con the public” of her border record.
“After almost four years, Border Czar Kamala Harris has decided, for political reasons, that it’s time for her to go to our broken Southern Border. What a disgrace that she waited so long,” Trump wrote on his social media, repeating his disparaging rhetoric on migrants.
While Harris has been to the southern border, the trip marks her first visit since lauched her campaign at the end of July.
Trump has made immigration central to his 2024 campaign, pledging mass deportations and a border shutdown among other hard-line policies. He visited the border last month, the same day Harris formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president.
ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh
Harris planning a visit to southern border this week: Source
Vice President Harris is planning to visit the southern border during her visit to Arizona on Friday, according to a source familiar.
This would be Harris’ first visit to the southern border since she jumped to the top of the ticket at the end of July.
Immigration has been a big issue in the 2024 race, with Donald Trump and Republicans inaccurately calling Harris the “border czar” and blaming her for the border crisis. Harris, in turn, argues that Trump and Republicans are at fault for killing the bipartisan border bill earlier this year.
Harris has overseen the Biden administration’s efforts to address the root causes of migration as vice president, and visited the border in 2021, after she came under fire for not having done so.
Trump expected to return to Butler for a rally on Oct. 5: Sources
Trump is expected to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the city of his first assassination attempt, next Saturday for a rally, according to multiple sources familiar with his plans.
The rally is scheduled for Oct. 5.
Trump has long promised to return to Butler to honor the victims who died at his July rally.
“I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY, HONORING THE SOUL OF OUR BELOVED FIREFIGHTING HERO, COREY, AND THOSE BRAVE PATRIOTS INJURED TWO WEEKS AGO. WHAT A DAY IT WILL BE — FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS,” Trump wrote on his social media platform in July.
NBC News was first to report the news.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Lalee Ibssa, Kesley Walsh and Soorin Kim
Harris won’t attend the Al Smith dinner, a presidential campaign staple
Vice President Harris will not attend the Al Smith dinner next month in New York, breaking with tradition of major party nominees sharing laughs at the benefit dinner, and will instead be on the campaign trail, a campaign official confirmed to ABC News.
“She is going to be campaigning in a battleground state that day, and the campaign wants to maximize her time in the battlegrounds this close to the election,” the official said.
The dinner, which benefits Catholic Charities, is scheduled for Oct. 17. It has become a traditional stop on the presidential campaign trail, with both the Republican and Democratic nominees attending and delivering remarks full of roasts. In recent years, both nominees attended the gala, including in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. (The latter was virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic.)
The official also added that Harris’ team informed the dinner’s organizers she would be absent, but was willing to attend in a later year as president.
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Melania Trump to sit for her 1st interview of 2024 election cycle
Former first lady Melania Trump will sit down for her first interview of the 2024 election cycle with Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt as she continues to promote her new book.
The interview is set to air on Thursday, Fox announced on Monday.
While Melania Trump has remained relatively quiet this campaign cycle, mainly appearing with the former president at closed-door events, she has been more active online recently as she launches her forthcoming memoir, “Melania.”
Her book is scheduled to be released on Oct. 8. Her website describes it in part as “the powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has defined personal excellence, overcome adversity, and carved her own path.”
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Trump again says it’s too late for another debate amid challenges from Harris
Trump is again ruling out another debate against Harris, arguing it would be “a very bad thing” for the country.
“Well, I’ve already done two debates, and they, you know, we’re good, but to do a third one, everybody’s voting now, and it’s very late to be doing a third debate,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin in a phone conversation that aired Monday morning.
Harris said over the weekend she accepted an offer from CNN for a debate on Oct. 23.
Her team has also noted that there have been presidential debates in years past in the final weeks before Election Day.
“The final 2020 debate was October 22,” the Harris campaign wrote on X. “The proposed CNN debate is October 23.”
Trump also debated Hillary Clinton for a third time around the same timeframe: Oct. 19, 2016.
Trump slightly leads in Arizona, about even in North Carolina: Polls
A set of New York Times/Siena College polls found Trump slightly leads Harris in Arizona and they are about evenly matched in North Carolina.
Among likely voters in Arizona, Trump leads Harris 50% to 45% in a head-to-head matchup. In a six-way matchup with other candidates, Trump still leads Harris 48% to 43%.
In North Carolina, Trump also leads Harris among likely voters 49% to 47%. He also leads by 2 percentage points in a six-way matchup. The lead, however, is within the poll’s margin of error.
Arizona and North Carolina are considered crucial battlegrounds this election, along with Georgia. According to 538’s polling average, Trump is ahead slightly in each of the three Sun Belt states.
