Category: Politics

(NEW YORK) — A presidential election tradition dating back to 1960 brought some laughs in New York City on Thursday night, but for the first time in 40 years, only one candidate will be on the dias.

Former President Donald Trump spoke at the New York Archdiocese’s annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner at the New York Hilton, where he was joined by his wife Melania Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris announced last month that she could not attend due to a conflicting campaign event but appeared at the dinner in a video.

“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,” a campaign official told ABC News on Sept. 23.

The vice president campaigned in Wisconsin on Thursday.

Trump alternated between making jokes about Harris and some of the other attendees and the regular lines that he uses while campaigning, but he did acknowledged the event’s tradition of self-deprecating jokes and said one was coming before admitting, “Ah, I got nothing.”

Harris appeared in her video with “Saturday Night Live” character Mary Katherine Gallagher, played by Molly Shannon as an awkward Catholic school girl who dreams of being a superstar.

Harris asked Mary Katherine for advice on how to address the Catholic gathering.

“Is there anything that you think that maybe I shouldn’t bring up tonight?”

“Um, well, don’t lie,” Mary Katherine replied. “Thou shalt not bear false witness to thy neighbor.”

“Indeed, especially thy neighbor’s election results,” Harris said.

Trump chastised Harris in a Truth Social post before the event for not showing up.

“They didn’t give me the option of a video message, nor would I have done it. This is very disrespectful to everyone involved,” he said adding that Harris should lose the Catholic vote over this.

After Harris’ video played, Trump repeated that sentiment.

“It’s been a long tradition for both Democrat and Republican candidates for president of the United States to attend this dinner. Always. It’s a rule. Otherwise, bad things are going to happen to you from up there,” he said. “You can’t do what I just saw on that screen. But, my opponent feels like she does not have to be here, which is deeply disrespectful to the event and in particular, to our great Catholic community. Very disrespectful.”

Later, mentioning the charity behind the dinner, Trump took another shot at Harris, saying, “I guess you should have told her the funds were going to bail out the looters and rioters in Minneapolis, and she would have been here, guaranteed.”

Since 1960, the black-tie event has hosted both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates and allowed them to “share self-deprecating humor” and raise money for the archdiocese’s charitable organizations.

It is named in honor of Alfred E. Smith, the former New York governor who was the first Catholic to be nominated to a major party’s presidential ticket.

The last time a presidential candidate could not attend the dinner was in 1984, when Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale bowed out.

The event was emceed by comedian Jim Gaffigan, who currently plays Gov. Tim Walz on “Saturday Night Live.”

Trump confirmed his attendance in a Truth Social post on Sept. 23, not long after Harris’ campaign announced she would not show up.

“It’s sad, but not surprising, that Kamala has decided not to attend,” he said in the post.

In the same post, Trump accused Harris of being anti-Catholic and repeated past claims, without evidence, that the administration was persecuting Catholics. President Joe Biden is the second Catholic president in American history and attends mass weekly.

In the past, the presidential candidates have roasted each other and appeared to be in good spirits throughout the night. However, things were different in 2016, the last time both of the presidential candidates attended the event in person.

Trump was booed during his 2016 Al Smith dinner speech for repeatedly attacking Sec. of State Hilary Clinton.

During Clinton’s remarks, the Democratic nominee made some self-deprecating jokes about her stamina and paid speeches, before turning her attention to Trump, where she jabbed him on everything from his temperament to his ties to Russia.

Trump did not laugh or appear to be amused by his opponent’s jokes.

ABC News’ Soo Rin Kim, Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys have asked the judge overseeing his federal election interference case to further delay the release of a redacted appendix containing evidence amassed by special counsel Jack Smith in his probe of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, according to a Thursday morning court filing.

The release of the redacted appendix, which was an attachment to the immunity motion unsealed two weeks ago by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that included new details about Trump and his allies’ actions leading up to the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, is currently scheduled for Thursday.

In their motion Thursday, Trump’s attorneys requested that Chutkan delay the release of the appendix until Nov. 14 — after the presidential election — when Trump’s own reply brief appendix is due. The former president is expected to argue that his actions leading up to and on Jan. 6 should be immune from prosecution.

“Here, President Trump requests only that the Court briefly continue its existing stay of the Order, such that the redacted versions of the SC Appendix and President Trump’s forthcoming appendix may be released concurrently,” the filing said. “Although this stay will not eliminate the harms President Trump identified in his prior opposition filings, certain harms will be mitigated. For example, if the Court immediately releases the Special Counsel’s cherry-picked documents, potential jurors will be left with a skewed, one-sided, and inaccurate picture of this case.”

“If the appendices are released simultaneously, at least some press outlets will attempt to report both sides of this case, reducing (although, again, not eliminating) the potential for irreversible prejudice,” the filing said.

The filing includes arguments that could draw direct a rebuke from Judge Chutkan, after she previously warned Trump’s attorneys to not level any further allegations of partisanship at Smith’s team without providing evidence.

Trump’s attorneys also argue that while Chutkan has previously said the election will play no role in her decisions in the case, she should address “the public’s interest in ensuring that this case does not unduly interfere, or appear to interfere, with the ongoing election.”

Smith did not respond to Trump’s request for a delay, the filing says.

Trump last year pleaded not guilty to federal charges of undertaking a “criminal scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election in order to remain in power.

Smith subsequently charged Trump in a superseding indictment that was adjusted to respect the Supreme Court’s July ruling that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken as president.

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(WASHINGTON) — There were many mistakes made on the day of the July assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump by the Secret Service, but an independent review by the Department of Homeland Security revealed systemic issues within the organization and found that without reforms to the agency, “another Butler can and will happen again.”

In the aftermath of the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas assigned a panel of four former law enforcement and national security officials to examine what went wrong, and how they recommend the Secret Service moves forward after the attempt on former president’s life.

“The Secret Service does not perform at the elite levels needed to discharge its critical mission,” the letter addressed to Secretary Mayorkas said, which was included in the report. “The Secret Service has become bureaucratic, complacent, and static even though risks have multiplied and technology has evolved.”

On the independent panel are former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, former Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip, former Maryland State Police Superintendent David Mitchell and former Deputy National Security Adviser Fran Townsend.

The scathing 35-page report from the independent panel said the findings illustrated “deeper concerns” within the U.S. Secret Service.

“The Panel has observed that many of the Secret Service personnel involved in the events of July 13 appear to have done little in the way of self-reflection in terms of identifying areas of missteps, omissions, or opportunities for improvement,” the report said. “July 13 represents a historic security failure by the Secret Service which almost led to the death of a former president and current nominee and did lead to the death of a rally attendee.”

The panel said that even a “superficial” level of reflection would have been meaningful.

Plaguing the Secret Service are “corrosive cultural attitudes” regarding resourcing events – a “do more with less” attitude, according to the report.

The report also found there was a troubling “lack of critical thinking” by Secret Service personnel “before, during and after” the assassination attempt.

“A prominent instance of this is the fact that personnel had been read into significant intelligence regarding a long range threat by a foreign state actor against former President Trump, but failed to ensure that the AGR building was secured despite its proximity to the rally stage and the obvious high angle line of sight issues it presented,” the report found.

Other instances “revealed a surprising lack of rigor in considering the specific risks posed to particular individual protectees.”

The report said, for example, Trump, though not formally the Republican nominee at the time, had essentially clinched it months before and thus the Secret Service’s approach was formulaic “rather than an individualized assessment of risk.”

The failure to take ownership of planning the Butler rally and the lack of cohesion with state and local law enforcement during the planning of events, a lack of experienced agents to perform “certain critical security tasks,” a lack of auditing mechanisms to learn from mistakes in the field, a lack of training facilities, and a lack of agents feeling comfortable to speak up.

In particular, the operational tempo for younger agents who came up during the COVID-19 pandemic was slower than most election years, and thus those agents did not get as much experience in the field as agents would normally get.

The panel is calling for new leadership at the Secret Service – saying the agency needs a change with people from outside the agency.

“Many of the issues that the Panel has identified throughout this report, particularly regarding the Panel’s “deeper concerns,” are ultimately attributable, directly or indirectly, to the Service’s culture,” the report said. “A refreshment of leadership, with new perspectives, will contribute to the Service’s resolution of those issues.”

Among the other recommendations the panel made are a restructuring of the agency’s protective office, new training initiatives, new communication technologies that are more reliable and an evaluation “of the Secret Service’s method for how it resources protectees to ensure that it is risk-based, and not overly formulaic or reliant on a protectee’s title for making resource determinations.”

“The Panel also recognizes the bravery and selflessness exhibited by Secret Service agents and officers who put themselves in harm’s way to protect their protectees, including in Butler after Crooks fired at former President Trump and others. However, bravery and selflessness alone, no matter how honorable, are insufficient to discharge the Secret Service’s no-fail protective mission.”

Specific to July 13, the panel’s findings are in line with the Secret Service’s mission assurance review that came out last month.

Some of the findings are an absence of law enforcement to secure the AGR building where Thomas Matthew Crooks eventually fired from, the failure to mitigate the line of site from that building, having two communications rooms, the failure of anyone to encounter Crooks despite spotting him 90 minutes before Trump took the stage, the failure to inform the former president’s detail and the drone detection system not working.

The panel recommends the Service has integrated communications, a mandatory situation report when a protectee arrives, better counter-drone technologies and an advanced line of site mitigations.

A footnote in the report says the second assassination attempt against Trump didn’t impact the panel’s work but might’ve reinforced the report.

The panel recommends the Service implement the Butler reforms no later than March 31, 2025, and the broader reforms by the end of 2025.

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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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(GEORGIA) — One day after a Georgia judge invalidated the state’s controversial “hand count” rule, a separate judge Wednesday evening invalidated even more rules that were passed by the Republican-led state election board, declaring them “unlawful and void.”

Fulton County Judge Thomas Cox ruled after an hours-long hearing to invalidate seven rules total, including the hand count rule, finding in part that the board did not have the authority to enact them.

Cox made clear that the State of Georgia and the State Election Board “are hereby DIRECTED TO IMMEDIATELY REMOVE THESE RULES FROM THEIR ROLES AND OFFICIAL REPORTING” and to “IMMEDIATELY INFORM ALL STATE AND LOCAL ELECTION OFFICIALS THAT THESE RULES ARE VOID AND ARE NOT TO BE FOLLOWED,” in his decision.

The rules now invalidated include a rule calling county officials to certify election results after “reasonable inquiry.”

Cox wrote in his order that rule “adds an additional and undefined step into the certification process” and that it is “inconsistent with and unsupported” by state law.

He also invalidated a rule that “requires that a person delivering an absentee ballot provide a signature and photo ID at the time the absentee ballot is delivered.”

The judge said in his ruling that state provisions don’t require that.

“The SEB thus has no authority to require such presentment as a condition of accepting and counting an otherwise properly delivered ballot,” Cox wrote.

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(Williamsport, Pennsylvania) — In his most direct answer yet of this election cycle, GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance said he does not believe former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

Vance’s response occurred when a reporter asked, “What message do you think it sends to Independent voters when you do not directly answer the question, ‘Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?'”

“On the election of 2020, I’ve answered this question directly a million times. No, I think there are serious problems in 2020 so did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use,” Vance said.

“But look, I really couldn’t care less if you agree or disagree with me on this issue.”

In a recently resurfaced clip from Spectrum News 1 in 2022, Vance said, “Yeah, I do,” when asked if he believed the 2020 election was stolen.

President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election by more than 7 million votes.

Vance’s response comes after weeks of being asked by reporters if the former president lost the 2020 election.

This past Sunday in his interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz, Vance continued to dodge directly answering if Trump lost the 2020 election.

“Martha, you’ve you asked this question. I’ve been asked this question 10 times in the past couple of weeks. Of course, Donald Trump and I believe there were problems in 2020,” Vance said.

Pressed again by Raddatz, Vance replied, “I’ve said repeatedly I think the 2020 election had problems. You want to say rigged? You want to say he won? Use whatever vocabulary term you want.”

Taking questions from reporters at a campaign event in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, ABC News asked the Ohio Senator if he was concerned about election misinformation could impact this election cycle, Vance said he was concerned.

“I talk to people every now and then who will come up to me and say, ‘Well, you know, there are too many problems out there. We don’t trust the people who are going to count our ballots, and you know, so I’m not going to get out there and vote.’ That’s the exact opposite attitude you should be taking,” Vance said.

Trying to ease those who might have doubts about the election, Vance said that those who will be working the polls on election day are the same people in their community.

“Here’s something else that I think people don’t realize is, if you’re a local voter in a place like Williamsport, the people who are counting your ballots are often your neighbors. And again, it’s the local elections, and especially in our small and rural areas, it’s your neighbors who are counting these votes, it’s your neighbors who are counting these ballots.”

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(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.

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(NEW YORK) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday hammered former President Donald Trump as thin-skinned and a threat to U.S. democracy in a combative interview with Fox News.

The interview marked an opportunity for Harris to appear on a network that frequently criticizes her and praises her opponent, a notable moment after Republicans had panned her for only granting interviews with friendly reporters or podcasters. True to form, the interview was testy throughout, including multiple exchanges in which Harris and Fox News anchor Bret Baier repeatedly spoke over each other.

Harris raised Trump’s recent rhetoric about the “enemy within” and threats to use the military to go after political opponents on and supposed chaos on Election Day to suggest that he’s unfit for a second term in office, adding that it is “clear to me” that Trump is “unfit to serve, that he is unstable, that he is dangerous.”

“You and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people. He has talked about going after people who are engaged in peaceful protest. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him,” Harris told Fox News anchor Bret Baier.

“This is a democracy, and in a democracy the president of the United States in the United States of America, should be willing to be able to handle criticism without saying he’d lock people up for doing it,” she said.

The remarks mark an escalation of her rhetoric describing Trump as dangerous for the country as he escalates his rhetoric about internal threats from Americans, including “radical left lunatics,” raising concerns about how he’d use the military in a future administration.

‘Not a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency’: Harris
Harris also attempted to flesh out the differences Americans would see between President Joe Biden’s administration and her theoretical term in the White House, offering several examples after Republicans seized on her answer on ABC’s “The View” last week that “not a thing that comes to mind” when asked what she would have done something differently from Biden over the past four years.

“You’re not Joe Biden, you’re not Donald Trump, but, but nothing comes to mind that you would do differently?” Baier asked.

“My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden’s presidency, and like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences, and fresh and new ideas,” she told Baier.

Harris specifically raised her plans to offer increased housing assistance to first-time home buyers and provide funds to start small businesses.

Still, she added that her administration would mark a turning of the page from what she called the divisiveness of the Trump era in U.S. politics.

Redirecting Her election would mark a change “from the last decade in which we have been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump that has been designed and implemented to divide our country and have Americans literally point fingers at each other,” she said.

Pressed on immigration
Baier also pressed Harris on immigration and high levels of border crossings for much of the Biden administration.

Harris did not directly respond to a question about how many undocumented immigrants were released into the country, instead panning Trump for opposing a bipartisan plan that would have beefed up border security. She did, however, express sympathy for families who had loved ones killed by those who crossed the border illegally.

“Those are tragic cases. There’s no question about that. There is no question about that, and I can’t imagine the pain that the families of those victims have experienced for a loss that should not have occurred,” Harris said.

“So that is true. It is also true that if border security had actually been passed nine months ago, it would be nine months that we would have had more border agents at the border, more support for the folks who are working around the clock trying to hold it all together to ensure that no future harm would occur.”

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(ATLANTA) Former President Jimmy Carter has voted in the 2024 election, the Carter Center confirmed Wednesday.

Carter, the oldest living president, voted by mail on Wednesday, according to a statement from the Carter Center.

Jason Carter, the former president’s grandson, told ABC News earlier this week that the former president planned on voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in the “next couple of days.”

“It’s going to be the next couple days; the absentee ballots have gone out,” Jason Carter said.

Carter recently celebrated his 100th birthday. As he neared the milestone, his family said he was trying to live until he could vote for Harris.

Carter entered hospice care in early 2023 amid health challenges. Last year, he made a rare public appearance when he attended a memorial service for his late wife, Rosalynn Carter.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution was the first to report the news of Carter’s vote.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — For a second day this week, Vice President Kamala Harris is focusing on a key voting bloc that is a critical base for the Democratic Party: Black men.

On Tuesday, Harris will participate in an audio town hall event with Charlemagne tha God, host for the popular “The Breakfast Club” podcast. Also on Tuesday, the vice president is meeting with Black entrepreneurs in Detroit.

Her events come a day after her campaign rolled out a comprehensive plan — just three weeks until the election — to help Black men “get ahead” economically, which includes providing one million fully forgivable loans to Black entrepreneurs and an effort to invest in Black male teachers.

In an interview on “Roland Martin Unfiltered,” also released on Monday, Harris argued that economic policies that consider “historical barriers” facing Black people benefit all Americans.

“If you have public policy, and I’m talking about economic public policy specifically at this point, but if you have public policy that recognizes historical barriers and what we need to do then to overcome,” Harris said. “First, speak truth about them and then overcome them, that in the process of doing that, not only are you directly dealing with the injustices and the legal and procedural barriers that have been focused on Black folks, but by eliminating those barriers, everyone actually benefits, right?”

The focus on Black voters comes after former President Barack Obama sternly chided Black men over “excuses” to not vote for Harris while speaking to a group of Black at a campaign field office in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood last week.

“You have [Trump], who has consistently shown disregard, not just for the communities, but for you as a person, and you’re thinking about sitting out?” Obama asked. “And you’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses?”

Harris is polling ahead of Trump with Black voters who are registered to vote, 82-13%, according to the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll. That compares with 87-12% in the 2020 exit poll (a slight 5 points lower for Harris; no better for Trump). Black men are at 76-18% (compared with 79-19% four years ago), the poll found.

These differences from 2020 aren’t statistically significant, and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock said he agrees.

“I don’t buy this idea that there will be huge swaths of Black men voting for Donald Trump. That’s not going to happen. What I would urge folks to do is to show up, to understand that if you don’t vote, that is a vote for Donald Trump. That’s the concern.,” said Warnock on a Tuesday campaign call with reporters.

Part of the Harris campaign’s plan for Black men includes legalizing recreational marijuana nationwide. Such a move would “break down unjust legal barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back,” the campaign said in its release.

This takes the Biden administration’s current stance, which includes pardoning people convicted of marijuana possession, a step further. For Harris’ part, such a proposal is evidence of her evolving position. She has become more progressive since her time as attorney general of California when she was heavily criticized for aggressively prosecuting weed-related crimes.

Asked if she ever smoked by Charlamagne tha God back in 2019, Harris responded, “I have. And I inhaled — I did inhale. It was a long time ago. But, yes.”

She went on to clarify that she believes in legalizing the substance.

“I have had concerns, the full record, I have had concerns, which I think — first of all, let me just make this statement very clear, I believe we need to legalize marijuana,” she said. “Now, that being said — and this is not a ‘but,’ it is an ‘and’ — and we need to research, which is one of the reasons we need to legalize it. We need to move it on the schedule so that we can research the impact of weed on a developing brain. You know, that part of the brain that develops judgment, actually begins its growth at age 18 through age 24.”

Her answer garnered backlash due to her record prosecuting the substance, particularly given the racial disparities in punishment nationwide. Harris’ new proposal looks to correct those historical inequities.

But is it enough?

In addition to the new proposals, Harris has aggressively been campaigning in Black communities in the past week, stopping at several local Black-owned businesses and churches in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan as well as appearing on several media programs with predominately Black audiences.

In September, Harris told a group of Black reporters in a moderated conversation hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists that she was “working to earn the vote, not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black.”

Her campaign launched a “Black Men Huddle” organizing call on Monday, which featured remarks from campaign senior officials Tony West, Brian Nelson, Quentin Fulks and Rep. Cedric Richmond. Later, there was a weekly event focused on Black men supporting Harris featuring actor Don Cheadle.

“What the vice president is doing is giving us the tools to be able to go and have meaningful, impactful conversations when Black men turn back around to us and say, ‘Well, what’s in it for me,’ I think that we have policy and tools like this that we can say exactly that,” said Fulks.

Doc Rivers, who interviewed Harris for his “ALL the SMOKE” podcast on Monday, said he agreed with Obama’s comments last week and pushed for Black men to cast their ballots.

“I agree 100% with President Obama — it’s unacceptable not to vote. When you look back at what your parents and your grandparents had to do to get the right to vote, that’s unacceptable for me,” said Rivers. “But there are Black men who out there that feel hopeless, they don’t believe a vote helps them in either way, and I’m here to tell them they’re wrong.”

ABC News interviewed Black men in Pittsburgh’s predominately Black Homewood Brushton neighborhood last Friday about their impressions of Harris and what she needed to do to get their vote.

Aquail Bey, a student at The Community College of Allegheny County and president of its veterans club, said Harris needs to meet them where they are and genuinely speak with them.

“She’s doing a good job right now, but I think she should have — go to places where they are, you know, meet them on their own terms, you know. Go to the neighborhoods where they are, go to the barber shops … ” Bey said. “Wherever the Black men are, go to where they are, speak to them a way that they understand.”

Aaron Stuckey said people shouldn’t assume Black men aren’t getting behind Harris.

“Just poll us instead of assuming that that’s where we’re not going,” he said.

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