Donald Trump wins 2nd term in historic return to White House
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is projected to win the presidential race by ABC News, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in a frenzied contest to stage an improbable historic comeback.
Trump ended up with at least 279 electoral votes after clinching wins in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia and Wisconsin. Harris has won at least 219 votes. The race was marked by literal history, including two assassination attempts and 34 felony convictions against Trump, already having been impeached twice and faulted for mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic response.
Maybe even more memorable was President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race after a ruinous June debate in which he struggled at times to form sentences.
Trump’s victory underscores just how deep voters’ frustrations were surrounding inflation and immigration, Republicans’ two top issues this election cycle as polls consistently showed Americans’ unhappiness with how Biden handled them.
His return to the White House also suggests that Democrats were not motivated enough by the prospect of electing the first female president and that its base’s fury over the Supreme Court’s revocation of constitutional abortion protections has waned since 2022.
For Trump personally, the win offers both political vindication and legal protection. Since his win, he and his brand were soundly rejected in 2018, 2020 and 2022. And once in office, he’d be able to undermine criminal cases against him surrounding his handling of classified documents while out of office and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
“I want to thank the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected your 47th president and your 45th president,” Trump said in his victory speech.
Trump’s victory is likely to set off transformations in both parties.
His win will likely help cement his “Make America Great Again” brand of politics as the dominant strand of Republicanism for the foreseeable future, with Vice President-elect JD Vance seemingly well positioned to carry on Trump’s mantle after the current administration ends in a little over four years.
Democrats, meanwhile, will likely have to sift through the rubble to understand what voters found so unappetizing about them that they’d choose instead to support a twice-impeached convicted felon who had already been voted out of office once.
The former and future president has not substantively outlined his goals for a second term — at his debate with Harris he boasted of having “concepts of a plan” when it comes to health care — though he has warned that he could go after his political opponents and journalists. He also could use his familiarity with the federal bureaucracy to help install civil servants who are loyal to him.
He will at least have a friendly, GOP-controlled Senate, though the House majority remains up in the air.
Among the chief policy areas where Trump could leave his imprint are on the world stage, where he has forecasted less support for Ukraine; on trade, where he has boasted of tariffs of as high as 100% on some imports, and on immigration, where he supports a mass deportation force and eliminating the Temporary Protected Status program.
He’s also vowed to “drill, baby, drill” and lower costs, though his tariffs would likely raise the price of many goods, economists say, and he promised to eliminate tax on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits for seniors.
Perhaps more than anything, though, Democrats will be on the lookout for any form of retribution from a candidate who repeatedly dubbed his detractors the “enemy from within,” though he never went after Hillary Clinton after leading chants of “lock her up” in 2016.
Trump’s victory this year was far from assured.
Republicans across the spectrum panned Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol to stop certification of the 2020 election, with even allies like Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., suggesting the party should move on from the former president and his brand. That nascent push was largely abandoned weeks later when then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., ventured down to Mar-a-Lago to make amends and discuss House strategy.
Republicans’ disappointing 2022 election results tore open those divides once again. After an anticipated red wave instead gave way to the loss of a Senate seat and only marginal House gains, GOP leaders wondered if the time had come to elevate other lawmakers as the party’s future.
Buzz mounted around Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as a younger Republican and culture warrior who could synthesize Trump’s brawler style into more widespread appeal, with Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis calling him the party “leader.” Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence offered more traditional conservative credentials in a snapback of sorts to a pre-Trump party.
Millions of dollars flooded a crowded 2024 GOP primary field, with DeSantis in particular leaning on a historically well-heeled and involved super PAC to proselytize his fighter credentials.
None of it mattered.
Pence dropped out before the calendar even turned to 2024. DeSantis ended his campaign before the New Hampshire primary after falling far short of expectations in Iowa. And while Haley stuck around for months, even drawing thousands of votes in primaries after she ended her own campaign in March, no candidate ever held a candle to Trump’s share of the primary electorate.
All of the 2024 contenders endorsed Trump except for Pence and former Govs. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas and Chris Christie of New Jsersy, none of whom made close to a dent in the nominating contest.
Even though he dominated he clinched the nomination as the GOP’s dominant figure and former president, Trump’s campaign was ultimately anything but conventional.
Trump was dogged by a slate of investigations into his handling of classified documents upon leaving office, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and payments made to the porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. He was able to fend off or delay many of the federal investigations he faced, and while he was convicted in a New York trial of 34 felony counts over the Daniels payments, his sentencing was delayed until after the election.
Compounding on the history of the election were two assassination attempts against Trump, the first of which, in July, saw him grazed in the ear by a bullet. Trump was able to use the threats to juice his fundraising and expound on his victimhood narrative, though they did not lead to any fundamental polling shifts.
But perhaps more than anything, Trump’s campaign was roiled by chaos in the Democratic Party.
Trump appeared to initially struggle to figure out how to attack Harris once she took over as Democrats’ nominee, even continuing to go after Biden.
However, Trump eventually settled on a line of attack that Harris had four years to fix the country’s woes, mocking her argument about what she’d do on Day One, arguing that day one was in 2021.
Still, Trump kept Republicans nervous by mixing in messages of grievance up until the very end of the race, veering off a script on inflation and immigration that operatives believed was more effective in winning over persuadable voters.
In the end, though, Trump’s playbook was just enough to win.
People inspect the remains of an Iranian missile that fell into the home of a Bedouin family in the Negev desert near Arad, Oct. 2, 2024, in the aftermath of an overnight Iranian missile attack on Israel. (Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Even as Iranian missiles were streaking across the skies over Israel this week, U.S. officials say they were actively engaging with their Israeli counterparts to game out an appropriate response to the attack and underscore the need to avoid escalation.
Now that the fog of war has subsided to reveal that Iran’s barrage on Tuesday did not incur massive loss of life or widespread damage, several Biden administration officials tell ABC News they’re more optimistic they can persuade Israel to carry out a measured response — but said they still fear a significant counterattack could trigger additional military action from Iran that leads to spiraling escalation in the Middle East.
One U.S. official said Israel aims to reestablish deterrence through its response by putting on a show of force. However, the official said Israel is unlikely to hit Iran’s nuclear facilities — a move that would spark ire from Tehran and one President Joe Biden made clear he does not support following a conversation with other members of the G7.
“We’ll be discussing with Israelis what they’re going to do,” Biden said Wednesday. “All seven of us agree that they have a right to respond, but they should respond in proportion.”
Another U.S. official said Israel could opt to go after other targets critical to Iran’s economy, like the country’s energy grid or its oil production infrastructure, but that striking a military installation would be the route with the lowest risk of escalation.
They added that the Biden administration believes Israel is still evaluating its options and has not yet set a firm timeline for its response.
An Israeli official told ABC News on Wednesday that its retaliation would be “significant” and “come fast.”
The Iranian regime has issued a range of messages following Tuesday’s attack on Israel, blaming the presence of the U.S. and some European nations in the Middle East for the turmoil in the region and declaring that peace depends on “rooting out the evil of these countries” while also declaring Tehran doesn’t want a broader war.
“We don’t seek war, it is Israel that is forcing us to react,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said during a press conference in Qatar on Wednesday.
Tehran said its attack was incited by the assassination of Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iranian soil in July, which was widely attributed to Israel, and the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli strike last week.
The Biden administration has lauded the killing of Nasrallah, saying Israel acted to bring the leader of a designated terror organization to justice. But the killing of the Iranian proxy group’s leader has also complicated the leverage the U.S. has over Israel.
In April, Tehran launched a drone and missile attack at Israel to settle the score following an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Damascus, Syria. Then, the tit-for-tat ended with a murmur — a muted counterblow from Israel on a single Iranian military site.
But in the spring, Israel still wished to avoid provoking Hezbollah, making the country more amenable to the Biden administration’s pleas for caution. Now, Israel is actively carrying out ground incursions into Lebanon and has greatly diminished the militant group’s capability.
The Biden administration initially responded to Israel’s actions in Lebanon by urgently calling for a cease-fire.
Now, U.S. officials say they are still pursuing a diplomatic solution, but the public messaging from Washington has pivoted back to one of support for Israel rather than calls for truce in Lebanon.
“Make no mistake, the United States is fully, fully supportive of Israel,” Biden said.
Bridget Bennett for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — 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.
ABC News’ John Karl to speak with Liz Cheney
Former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney will sit down with ABC News’ Chief Washington Correspondent and Co-Anchor of “This Week” Jonathan Karl at the Detroit Economic Club on Tuesday afternoon.
Part of the event will be streamed on ABC News Live.
Karl’s discussion with Cheney comes a day after she hit the campaign trail with Harris for a series of moderated conversations in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, in which they sought to appeal to white suburban women who vote Republican.
Trump courts Latino voters, Harris off the trail
Trump will hold a roundtable at the Latino Summit at his Doral golf club in Miami. The event was postponed because of Hurricane Milton and comes as the former president seeks to eat away at Harris’ edge with Hispanic voters, particularly males.
Trump will later head to Greensboro, North Carolina, for a rally.
Harris, notably, has no public events scheduled for Tuesday, spending her afternoon instead doing interviews with NBC News and Telemundo.
Former President Barack Obama joins Minnesota Gov. and Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz for a rally in Madison, Wisconsin.
Trump and Harris prepare for flood of legal activity around election
Harris and Trump are preparing for a flood of legal activity before and after the election after the former president launched an avalanche of lawsuits seeking to overturn his loss in 2020.
Earlier this year, the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign announced what they described as an “historic” “election integrity” program that an RNC official said in recent months has engaged in over 130 election lawsuits across 26 states, and recruited approximately 5,000 volunteer attorneys who are ready to be activated on Election Day.
Democrats, for their part, have intervened in “dozens of baseless Republican lawsuits to debunk their lies and defeat them in court,” according to an internal memo prepared by Harris’ chief attorney, Dana Remus.
Read more here from Olivia Rubin, Will Steakin and Lucien Bruggeman.
Nevada Republicans outpace Democrats in in-person early voting, trail in mail-in voting
Republicans are outpacing Democrats in in-person early voting in Nevada while Democrats are outpacing Republicans in mail-in voting, the Nevada Secretary of State Office’s latest report shows.
The latest report, updated Monday night, reflects early in-person voting and mail-in voting turnout in the first three days. It showed 52% of in-person early voters so far have been Republicans, while 28% were Democrats. Of all mail-in ballots cast so far, 43% so far have been Democrats and 30% Republicans.
The pattern reflects trends from the 2020 presidential election, when Republicans outpaced Democrats in early in-person voting and Democrats outpaced Republicans with mail-in voting.
In total, 245,356 mail-in ballots and early in-person ballots had been cast as of Monday night, with just under 40% of them being Republicans and 36% of them being Democrats.
In-person early voting in Nevada began on Oct. 19.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim
Elon Musk’s PAC pays out 3rd $1 million check to voter
Elon Musk’s America PAC said late Monday that it handed out a third $1 million check to a voter who has signed its petition backing the Constitution.
The PAC said in a post to X that the check was given to Shannon Tomei from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, posting a photograph of Tomei holding the check.
“Every day until Election Day, a person who signs the petition will be selected to earn $1M as a spokesperson for America PAC,” it added.
Musk shared the announcement and congratulated Tomei. In other posts, he has been urging people to register to vote in Pennsylvania — a crucial battleground state in next month’s presidential election.
The first two winners were announced during a town hall in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, over the weekend, with Musk handing over the checks to the winners on stage. It’s unclear how the third check was delivered.
Musk has thrown his weight behind former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, describing Trump as the only candidate “to preserve democracy in America.”
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim
Harris takes jabs at Trump’s dance moves, calls him ‘increasingly unstable’
Vice President Kamala Harris and former Rep. Liz Cheney capped off their battleground tour in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in their bid to appeal to moderate Republicans and independents.
During the final event on Monday, Harris continued to draw a contrast between herself and former President Trump and even poked fun at his dance moves during his campaign rally last week.
Harris, who called Trump’s onstage dancing a “solo dance,” said that it was proof that the former president is “increasingly unstable.”
“What we see about him in public, whether it be his rallies or, as you said, the — what would it be called? — just a solo dance? I don’t know,” said Harris, drawing laughter from the crowd.
“I think it does lead us, and it should lead us, to observe that he is increasingly unstable,” Harris said.
Harris was referencing Trump’s town hall in Oaks, Pennsylvania, last week where two medical emergencies in the crowd interrupted the event, which eventually turned into what his campaign at the time called an “impromptu concert.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim
Tim Walz reacts to ‘Daily Show’ appearance with Jon Stewart while fundraising in NYC
Fresh off his taping of the “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” Gov. Tim Walz told a crowd at the Standard Hotel in New York City on Monday night that the experience was “great” but that the comedian’s monologue at the start of the show was filled with what he considered “doom.”
“I’m like, ‘Quit with the doom.’ You know?” Walz said.
“Yes, Donald Trump is horrible, and the stakes are incredibly high, and women’s lives are at risk, and they demonize immigrants. And then he goes to McDonald’s to try and distract us, even though, the day before that, he said, you know, ‘We need to do something against the enemy from within,’” he went on.
“But there’s an antidote to this,” he concluded, explaining that there was more than enough positivity in the support he has been receiving as he campaigns in battleground states.
At the fundraising event, Walz was introduced by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Hochul told the crowd that she got to know Walz when they were both representing red districts as Democrats in Congress.
She said that she gives Vice President Kamala Harris “a lot of credit” for choosing Walz as a running mate, whom she called “a genuine human being.”
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Trump recalls assassination attempt while courting religious voters in North Carolina
At a Believers and Ballots event in North Carolina Monday, former President Donald Trump worked to court religious voters.
Trump talked about his spiritual journey with the crowd as he emphasized a faith background we don’t often hear him talk about.
“But as I look back at my life’s journey and events, I now recognize that it’s been the hand of God leading me to where I am today,” said Trump.
The former president reflected on the assassination attempt made against him at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania over the summer.
“My faith took on new meaning on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, where I was knocked to the ground, essentially by what seemed like a supernatural hand,” Trump said.
“I would like to think that God saved me for a purpose, and that’s to make our country greater than ever before,” he added.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa
Judges in Michigan and North Carolina reject challenges to overseas votes
Judges in Michigan and North Carolina on Monday ruled against legal challenges that attempted to disqualify votes cast by eligible American voters overseas.
Republican plaintiffs claimed that election offices in those two states, as well as in Pennsylvania, had created loopholes that would allow ineligible people to vote through overseas absentee ballots.
In Michigan, the judge dismissed one of three suits filed, calling it in his opinion “an 11th-hour attempt to disenfranchise these electors.”
In North Carolina, the judge denied a request by plaintiffs to set aside the ballots of overseas voters until a time at which their individual eligibility could be verified. Superior Court Judge John Smith wrote in that instance that there was “absolutely no evidence that any person has ever fraudulently claimed that exemption and actually voted in any North Carolina election.”
His ruling also stated conclusively that, “This court has weighed the hypothetical possibility of harm to plaintiffs against the rights of the defendants and finds that on balance the equitable discretion of this court should not be invoked to treat an entire group of citizens differently based upon unsupported and speculative allegations for which there is not even a scintilla of substantive evidence.”
A ruling on a similar lawsuit in Pennsylvania is expected soon.
-ABC News’ T. Michelle Murphy and Ivan Pereira
Trump spends millions on anti-trans ads despite lack of voter interest
Donald Trump and his Republicans allies are aggressively pushing anti-trans messaging in the final stretch of his campaign — despite the fact that transgender issues are among the least important issues motivating voters to head to the ballot box, according to a Gallup poll.
The Trump campaign and Republican groups have spent more than $21 million on anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ television ads as of Oct. 9.
Additionally, in recent months, Trump-aligned political groups have flooded the airwaves with ads disparaging policies that support the transgender community.
Despite the small size of the transgender population in the U.S., these issues have played a key role in many Republican campaigns on both the state and federal levels.
Trump’s own political agenda, titled Agenda 47, is laden with transgender-based proposals, including a ban on transgender participation in women’s sports, an end to gender-affirming care funded by federal or state dollars, and more.
ABC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on his ad spending.
-ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca and Soo Rin Kim
Walz to travel to Kentucky, North Carolina and Pennsylvania later this week
After Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz campaigns in Wisconsin on Tuesday (where he’ll be joined by former President Barack Obama for a rally in Madison), he’ll remain out on the trail this week.
On Wednesday, Walz will speak at an evening fundraiser in Louisville, Kentucky.
On Thursday, he will spend the morning making political stops in Durham, North Carolina — just a week after he visited the city with former President Bill Clinton. He’ll then make local stops in Greenville, North Carolina, in the afternoon and hold a rally in Wilmington that night.
On Friday, Walz will campaign in Philadelphia, where he’ll speak at a fundraiser in the city around noon.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Harris says she wakes up in middle of night from election stress
Harris said she finds herself waking up in the middle of the night from the stress of the final days of the election, when asked how she handles stress and anxiety during a discussion in Michigan on Monday.
“You know, I wake up in the middle of the night, usually these days. Just to be honest with you,” Harris told Maria Shriver, who moderated the discussion between the vice president and former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in Royal Oak. “But I work out every morning. I think that’s really important to just kind of, you know, mind, body and spirit.”
“Say more about that,” Shriver pressed Harris.
“I work out, I try to eat,” Harris responded. “You know, I love my family, and I make sure that I talk to the kids and my husband every day.”
“My family grounds me in every way,” she added.
The exchange started with Harris making something clear: She’s not taking edibles.
“Everybody I talked to says, you know, I have to turn off the news, I can’t read anything, I’m meditating, I’m doing yoga. I’m so anxious. I just don’t even know. I’m eating gummies, all kinds of things, you know?” Shriver said to Harris, asking, “What are you doing?”
“Not eating gummies,” Harris said to laughs from the crowd.
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Liz Cheney makes a case for conservatives to back Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a series of moderated conversations with former Rep. Liz Cheney in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday.
In those appearances, Cheney made a case for conservatives to vote Democrat in the upcoming election and support Harris’ bid for the White House.
“What I would say is that if people are uncertain, if people are thinking, ‘Well, you know, I’m a conservative, I don’t know that I can support Vice President Harris,’ I would say, I don’t know if anybody is more conservative than I am,” said Cheney, who was the third-ranking member of the House Republican Conference from 2019 to 2021.
Cheney also warned Republicans considering voting for Trump that Congress would not be a check on him.
“For anybody who is a Republican who is thinking that, you know, they might vote for Donald Trump because of national security policy, I ask you, please, please study his national security policy,” Cheney said. “Not only is it not Republican — it’s dangerous. And without allies, America will find our very freedom and security challenged and threatened.”
“And one final point on this: Don’t think that Congress can stop him,” Cheney added.
In Malvern, Pennsylvania, Cheney said she thought there would be Republican voters who would cast their ballots for Harris — even if they did not reveal it publicly.
In Michigan, she went further, encouraging voters to do just that, saying, “If you’re at all concerned, you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody, and there will be millions of Republicans who do that on Nov. 5, vote for Vice President Harris.”
-ABC News’ Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, Fritz Farrow, Will McDuffie and T. Michelle Murphy
Trump pushes false claims that Democrats are trying to cheat in election
Rallying in Greenville, North Carolina, on Monday, Trump launched baseless claims about possible fraud in the 2024 election — despite earlier in the day saying he hadn’t seen evidence of it.
At one point during the rally, Trump turned to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley to ask him about election security.
“He’ll stop the cheating. He’s going to stop the cheating,” Trump said to Whatley. “Are they cheating? Michael, they’re trying, but are they? They’re not going to get away with it, right? … They got away with it in plenty of places.”
Earlier in Asheville, North Carolina, Trump told his supporters that he hasn’t seen any evidence of cheating in the election thus far, but added, “I know the other side and they are not good.”
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Soo Rin Kim
More than 1.5M have voted early in battleground Georgia
The office of the Georgia Secretary of State announced Monday that more than 1.5 million voters have voted early in person in Georgia as of Monday afternoon.
“Georgia voters know we’ve made it easy to cast a ballot. It’s really that simple,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement.
In-person early voting started in the key battleground state on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
As of Monday afternoon, more than 15 million early votes have been cast nationally, including almost 5 million in-person early votes, according to an analysis by the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim
Harris reiterates she worked at McDonald’s after Trump stunt
On her way to her moderated conversation in Michigan, Harris was asked if she had worked at a McDonald’s while deplaning Air Force 2.
“Did I? I did,” she said.
Her past experience at McDonald’s has become a fixation of Trump’s, who over the weekend worked the fryer at one of the chain’s restaurants in the Philadelphia area.
Trump has claimed Harris never worked at the fast food giant. Harris, in introducing herself to voters this campaign, has told the story of working there between her freshman and sophomore years at Howard University in an effort to contrast her working-class roots with Trump’s background.
-ABC News’ Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim
Cheney gives Harris backup on abortion
Harris got backup on a hot-button cultural issue from an unlikely source Monday — conservative former Rep. Liz Cheney.
Cheney — who has broken with Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot — still boasts a conservative record. But Monday, she waded into an issue that Democrats hope will help them win over voters on Election Day.
“I think there are many of us around the country who have been pro-life but who have watched what’s going on in our states since the Dobbs decision and have watched state legislatures put in place laws that are resulting in women not getting the care they need,” Cheney said, referencing the Supreme Court decision that scrapped federal abortion protections.
“In places like Texas, for example, the attorney general is talking about suing, is suing, to get access to women’s medical records. That’s not sustainable for us as a country, and it has to change.”
The remarks, made in a Philadelphia suburb, were notable as Harris looks to cement support among suburban female voters.
Harris works to earn Pennsylvania’s Republican votes alongside Liz Cheney
Harris is doing a series of moderated conversations with former Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney in suburban cities in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin on Monday.
While in Pennsylvania, Harris and Cheney worked to pick off Republicans disaffected with their party’s nominee who may vote for the vice president and focus on the dangers Trump poses to the country and to democracy.
“There are months in the history of our country which challenge us, each of us, to really decide when we stand for those things that we talk about, including, in particular, country over party,” Harris said.
Cheney, a staunch Trump critic who endorsed Harris in September despite their party and policy differences, said “every single thing in my experience and in my background has played a part” in her supporting Harris.
“In this race, we have the opportunity to vote for and support somebody you can count on. We’re not always going to agree, but I know Vice President Harris will always do what she believes is right for this country. She has a sincere heart, and that’s why I’m honored to be in this place.”
Read more about Harris and Cheney’s events here.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie, Gabriella Abdul-Hakim and Fritz Farrow
Trump appears on The Undertaker’s podcast
Trump continued his alternative media outreach effort by sitting down for a podcast interview with retired pro wrestler Mark Calaway, also known as “The Undertaker.”
During the podcast, Trump repeated his anti-trans rhetoric, promising to not allow “men playing in women’s sports” as Calaway brought up his teenage quarterback daughter.
“You don’t want to go and wrestle a guy like if you were doing that, because people do that — like your father — right? He’s a little too much to handle,” Trump said to Calaway’s daughter, who was present for the interview, after Calaway asked him about Title IX..
“I will get rid of it fast. Men playing in women’s sports is insane,” Trump said.
Republicans have invested heavily in ads targeting the transgender community this cycle.
-ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh
Walz on what he’d do differently from the Biden admin and appealing to voters
Tim Walz joined ABC’s “The View” on Monday, where he discussed what he would have done differently than the Biden-Harris administration — a questioned that Harris herself struggled with in her own appearance on the talk show.
The governor said that he wished one of their ticket’s proposals — an expansion on Medicare — “would have been proposed sooner.” He argued their campaign is focusing heavily on things like the care economy and child care affordability.
Walz also discussed how they can appeal to men and Black voters, two voting blocks where Trump is having success.
“As as vice president says, we have a responsibility to earn the votes from everyone and not make the assumption that men or women are going to be with us. I hear oftentimes about the Black community. Why would we assume that they were with us, unless we’re putting out proposals that positively impact their life?” Walz said.
He argued that they are trying to make voters aware of their proposals on housing, child care, small businesses and more.
Trump won’t denounce violence against FEMA workers during North Carolina stop
Trump toured devastation caused by Hurricane Helene just outside Asheville, North Carolina, and later delivered remarks to the press where he began by slamming the job from the White House for their hurricane response, continuing to push false claims about FEMA assistance in the wake of violence against FEMA workers.
“The power of nature. Nothing you can do about it, but you got to get a little bit better crew in to do a better job than has been done by the White House. It’s been not good. Not good. I’m here today in western North Carolina to express a simple message to the incredible people of the state, I’m with you, and the American people are with you all the way,” Trump said.
Later, he pushed false claims about the allocation of FEMA assistance, once again falsely saying that money dedicated to hurricane relief was going to offer assistance to migrants unaffected by the storm.
“FEMA has done a very poor job … They had spent hundreds of millions of dollars doing other things, things that I don’t think bear any relationship to this money, there was, they were not supposed to be spending the money on taking in illegal migrants, maybe so they could vote in the election. Because that’s what a lot of people are saying. That’s why they’re doing it,” Trump falsely said.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Soorin Kim
Sen. Bernie Sanders to join Biden in New Hampshire
In a strategic visit to boost Democrats’ presence in the purple state ahead of the election, President Joe Biden will be joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Tuesday in New Hampshire to talk about lowering the cost of prescription drugs, a senior administration official told ABC News.
The president is also expected to stop by a New Hampshire Democratic Party campaign office to support Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the official said.
The economy and costs are a top issue to voters in New Hampshire, polling shows, and Sanders, who made the high price of U.S. health care a central point of both his presidential campaigns, is a popular figure in the state, which neighbors his own.
Sanders and Biden will discuss new data on savings brought about by the administration’s hallmark Inflation Reduction Act, the senior official said. The act implemented significant price caps for Medicare enrollees, including a $35 cap on insulin already in effect and a $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket drug costs that kicks in in 2025. The White House estimates the caps will bring about cost savings of $400 per year for nearly 19 million seniors.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Tim Walz to join ABC’s ‘The View’
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Harris’ running mate, will join ABC’s “The View” on Monday.
His interview comes after Harris herself appeared on the show as part of a media blitz earlier this month.
Walz recently quipped on Trump’s visit to a McDonald’s on Sunday as part of his mockery of Harris’ past employment there. Walz said he took “full responsibility” for the campaign stop after he once joked he couldn’t imagine the former president working a McFlurry machine.
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%.
(PHILADELPHIA) — During the presidential debate Tuesday night, former President Donald Trump doubled down on the false claim that migrants from Haiti are stealing and eating people’s pets in Springfield, Ohio.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in, they’re eating the cats, they’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Trump said.
These baseless rumors have spread widely online in recent days — amplified by right-wing politicians, including vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance — after a series of social media posts have gone viral claiming Haitian migrants were abducting people’s pets in order to eat them.
A spokesperson for the city of Springfield told ABC News these claims are false, and that there have been “no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”
“Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic,” the spokesperson added.
According to the Springfield News-Sun, the Springfield Police Department has not received any reports of pets being stolen and eaten. The city even created a webpage debunking some of the claims.
Migrants have been drawn to the region because of low cost of living and work opportunities, the city says on its site. The city estimates there are around 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants living in the county, and that the rapid rise in population has strained housing, health care, and school resources. But the city also says that the migrants are in the country legally and that many are recipients of Temporary Protected Status from the federal government.
The false claim that immigrants are targeting people’s pets stemmed from a social media posting originally from a Springfield Facebook group that went viral, where the poster wrote that their neighbor’s daughter’s friend had lost her cat. The poster went on to make an unsubstantiated claim of Haitians allegedly taking the cat for food.
The post was picked up by people on social media, including rightwing activist Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA and Elon Musk.
One of the most prominent images circulating online, which depicts a man holding a dead goose, was taken two months ago not in Springfield, but in Columbus, Ohio. The resident who took the photo told ABC News he was surprised to see his image used to “push false narratives.”
Prominent Republicans have boosted this falsehood on social media. An AI-generated image, which showed Trump holding cats and ducks, was shared by the House Judiciary GOP account on X.
Vance, in particular, has magnified the debunked claim.
In a post on X, Vance published a video of himself at a July Senate Banking Committee hearing, reading a letter from Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck about the city’s challenges in keeping up with housing for the growing Haitian immigrant population.
In the post, Vance pushed the false claim that Haitian immigrants are kidnapping and eating people’s pets in Springfield.
“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio,” Vance wrote on X. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he asked, a term that Republicans have attempted to tag Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris with, although she has denied holding that role.
