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(WASHINGTON) — As we head into the final full week of campaigning before Election Day, the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll shows Kamala Harris with a slight 51-47% lead over Donald Trump among likely voters nationally — but the polls in the battleground states remain essentially deadlocked within the margin of error.

Fallout continues over racist comments made at Trump’s big rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden and Harris is preparing for her “closing argument” Tuesday night on the Ellipse near the Capitol and White House in Washington.

More than 41 million Americans have voted early

As of 5:45 a.m. ET on Monday, more than 41 million Americans have voted early, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.

Of the 41,989,199 total early votes, 21,111,171 were cast in person and 21,338,290 were balloted returned by mail.

On Monday, voters in Washington, D.C., can start casting their ballots early, in person. Almost all of the states that offer in-person early voting have begun offering it by now.

-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim

Michelle Obama uses op-ed to reiterate message imploring men to support women’s reproductive health

The former first lady repeated her passionate message on women’s health being at stake this election in an op-ed published by the New York Times on Monday,

The op-ed featured excerpted remarks from her rally in Michigan on Saturday in which she blasted Trump’s record on the issue in comparison to Harris’, and made an appeal to men to support the women in their lives. The rally marked her first campaign appearance since her speech at the Democratic National Convention this summer.

“I am asking you, from the core of my being, to take our lives seriously,” she said. “Please do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men, who have no clue or do not care about what we as women are going through, who don’t fully grasp the broad-reaching health implications that their misguided policies will have on our health outcomes.”

Despite her stated aversion to partisan politics, the former first lady is ramping up her involvement in the final stretch of the 2024 campaign. She will headline a rally on Tuesday in battleground Georgia.

Harris counters dark and racist comments at Trump’s MSG rally

Harris is countering the dark and racist comments made by speakers at Trump’s Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden, while the former president’s campaign tries to distance itself from the comedian who referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

Harris will stump in two critical counties in the battleground state of Michigan to kick off the final full week of campaigning. First, she will visit Corning’s manufacturing facility in Saginaw before getting a tour at a union training facility in Macomb County.

The vice president will cap the day with a rally with her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, in Ann Arbor. The rally will feature a concert by musician Maggie Rogers.

Trump will be in Georgia to deliver remarks at National Faith Advisory Board in Powder Springs before a 6 p.m. ET rally in Atlanta.

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(LINCOLN, N.E.) — Over the past few weeks, independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn has shaken up what many thought was a predictable race in Nebraska.

Partisan polls show that two-term Republican Sen. Deb Fischer is facing a tougher than expected road to reelection in a state where former President Donald Trump is ahead by more than 10 points over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential race. 538’s polling average shows Osborn and Fischer running neck-and-neck.

Osborn, a former union president and Navy veteran, is a first-time candidate running in a traditionally GOP stronghold. Nebraska’s two senators and three members of Congress are all Republicans.

In his first network television interview, Osborn decried the polarized state of politics and told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl he’s looking to “challenge the system” by running for office.

“I’m frustrated with the two parties,” Osborn said on “This Week.” “The fighting, the infighting, the outfighting, not getting anything done.”

Osborn’s momentum can be traced to a creative ad campaign, in which the candidate says his opponent “has taken so much corporate cash, she should wear patches, like NASCAR.”

The Nebraska race has attracted $21 million from outside groups while Osborn has raised $8 million and Fischer $6.5 million.

An onslaught of advertising by Republicans to boost Fischer seeks to depict Osborn as a liberal. The National Republican Senatorial Committee placed a $172,000 ad buy in September, according to AdImpact.

Ads run by Fischer’s campaign call Osborn a “dangerous Trojan Horse,” with Trump casting him as a “Bernie Sanders-type Democrat” in another.

In response to these claims, Osborn said he’s been “a registered independent from the time I could vote.”

A newcomer to politics, Osborn has often spoken out against what he calls a “two party doom loop,” and criticized Fischer for voting against the bipartisan border security bill last spring.

Osborn led a strike at Kellogg’s cereal plants in 2021, successfully winning higher wages for workers. He said that this experience with Kellogg “really opened my eyes to the fact, you know, the way our world is and the way our government’s run.”

Democrats are defending 23 seats in the Senate and Republicans 11 this cycle. With razor-thin margins, an Osborn victory could deny Republicans the opportunity to claim a firm majority — depending on which party he chooses to caucus with.

When pressed by Karl on his potentially tie-breaking role in the Senate, Osborn declined to align himself with either party. He also didn’t say who he is supporting for president.

“I need to navigate down the middle because that’s what, that’s what the two party doom loop means,” said Osborn. “It means we’re so far apart and politics is so polarized.”

Osborn has said he wouldn’t accept any party endorsements, yet many Democrats are rallying around his candidacy. The Nebraska Democratic Party is supporting Osborn through press releases and mail materials to voters.

Trump endorsed Fischer in September, posting on Truth Social that “Deb Fischer has my Complete and Total Endorsement — SHE WILL NOT LET YOU DOWN!” Fischer said she was “honored to have President Trump’s support.”

Osborn told Karl that he “votes on the person,” noting that he supports a veteran if there’s one on the ballot.

If he prevails and Nebraska sends an independent to the Senate, Osborn said his election could be a “national movement.”

“I think this is the start of something special,” he said. “People are ready for it. And I want to be a part of it.”

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Billionaire entrepreneur and television personality Mark Cuban said former President Donald Trump “absolutely” has “fascist tendencies.”

“Do I think that Donald Trump has fascist tendencies? Absolutely. Positively,” Cuban said. “I do believe Donald Trump poses a threat.”

“I mean, just look at January 6th,” Cuban added. “To have somebody who’s second in command and they’re chanting, ‘Hang Mike Pence!’ and you don’t care, there’s nothing you won’t do.”

Cuban, an independent supporting Vice President Kamala Harris, sat down with ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in between his campaign stops across the country making the case for Harris.

Despite his warnings about a second Trump term, Cuban called himself an “American first” and said he’d do whatever he can do to help the country regardless of who is president.

“You hear the stories about people saying, ‘I’ll leave the country’ and all that,” Cuban said. “If Trump wins, I mean, I’m not going anywhere, but I’m an American first. I’ll do whatever I can to help this country wherever I can. And it doesn’t matter to me who’s president.”

After Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly told the New York Times that Trump fits the definition of a fascist, Harris said on CNN that she does consider him a fascist, too. Trump has called Harris a fascist in the past. Asked for his reaction, Cuban said this is not a “normal” campaign.

“In a normal world, the two parties would get together and say, ‘Let’s just stop this name calling, right? Let’s just focus on the issues.’ But this is not a normal world. Donald Trump is not a normal candidate,” Cuban said. “And I think it’s not a stretch to call Donald Trump a fascist.”

Cuban said it’s “unnerving” that half of the country continues to support Trump and he thinks it’s because people want a change from President Joe Biden, who he said is not a leader.

“If you don’t have strong leadership and, you know, Joe Biden did a lot of great things, I think, you know, the economy and many other things can, that, you know, the CHIPS Act, there’s so many great things he’s done. But a leader he’s not,” Cuban said. “I think Kamala is a leader.”

Cuban supported Nikki Haley during the Republican primaries. Had she won the nomination, he said he may have voted for her over Biden — but not over Harris, who he said “knows how to be a CEO.”

As an entrepreneur, Cuban has been making the case on the campaign trail that Harris would be better for the economy than Trump.

“The economy’s in great shape. That does not mean every single individual in this country is experiencing all the goodness of the economy. But that was the same under the Trump administration as well. You know, the stock market’s at record high. The GDP is at record high. Real wages are greater than inflation now. Inflation is back down,” Cuban said. “Donald Trump is saying this stuff that’s not true. And you know the old saying, you repeat a lie, enough people start believing.”

In 2015, Cuban supported Trump’s first presidential run in its early stages, once calling him “the best thing to happen to politics” in recent history. But he reversed course before the election, opting to endorse Hillary Clinton.

“I didn’t think he had a chance to win. But I’m like, ‘This is great. You know, he’s not a traditional politician,’ and I thought that would be a net positive. I was wrong,” Cuban recalled.

Cuban has publicly weighed his own presidential bids in the past, but told Karl it’s no longer in the cards.

“No chance,” Cuban said. “I have no interest — no interest in being a politician of any type. I have no interest in serving in the cabinet for Kamala Harris or anybody,” Cuban said. “I like being a disruptor as an entrepreneur. So that’s where my focus is.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tore into a handful of retired military generals and ex-Trump administration officials for their increasingly visceral criticism of former President Donald Trump.

Graham told ABC’s “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl that accusations of Trump being a fascist and that he had praised Adolf Hitler are off-base, instead accusing former generals like John Kelly, Mark Milley and Jim Mattis of doing the bidding of the Kamala Harris presidential campaign, which has adopted a darker tone after launching on a platform of “joy.”

“[Trump] was a strong leader on the things that matter the most. Whether you like him or not, that’s up to you. He’s not a fascist. He’s not Hitler. And that shows you how desperate this campaign is. You got three retired generals who’ve been out of the game for a while three weeks before the election, trying to replace joy with fear,” Graham said.

“And let me say one thing to these generals: I admire you, I respect you, but for 20 years, you were given, and others, billions of dollars to train the Iraqi and the Afghan army, and they folded like a cheap suit. How about a little self-reflection about the job you did before you criticize others?”

Trump has been hit with a wave of critical headlines from some of his former top staffers, with the comments from the generals in particular raising eyebrows due to the history of former military leaders remaining apolitical, both during and after their service.

“Well, looking at the definition of fascism: It’s a far-right authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy,” Kelly, a former four-star Marine general and former chief of staff to Trump, told The New York Times in one example.

Trump has torn into his former aides, and Republicans have raised fears that such language could contribute to a combustible political environment that has already produced two attempts on Trump’s life.

“General Kelly’s criticisms are not based on facts. I think it’s emotional, it’s sad, and it’s not going to matter,” Graham said Sunday.

Karl pressed Graham on whether Trump’s rhetoric calling Harris a fascist is appropriate, playing a string of clips showing him using that word specifically.

“Do I think Kamala Harris is a fascist? No. Do I think she’s a communist? No, I think she’s the most liberal person ever to be nominated by a major party. I think she’s ineffective. I think she’s incompetent,” Graham responded.

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