Election updates: Trump claims he didn’t hear comedian’s racist comment at rally
(WASHINGTON) — As the race reaches one week until Election Day, Kamala Harris is set to deliver her “closing argument” Tuesday night on The Ellipse — in the same spot where Donald Trump rallied his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, to march on the U.S. Capitol nearby.
Trump will try to preempt Harris’s remarks when he speaks to reporters Tuesday morning at Mar-a-Lago after declaring he’s “the opposite of a Nazi” on Monday night in Georgia. He holds a rally later in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with a large population of Puerto Rican Americans.
More than 47 million Americans have voted early
As of 5:45 a.m. ET on Tuesday, more than 47 million Americans have voted early, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
Of the total number of early votes, 24,243,105 were cast in person and 23,384,971 were returned by mail
There is now just one week until Election Day.
Trump claims to ABC’s Scott he didn’t hear comedian’s Puerto Rico comment, doesn’t denounce it
The former president denied knowing the comedian who made a slew of racist, sexist and vulgar comments at his rally at Madison Square Garden, ABC News Senior Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott reports.
That comedian, Tony Hinchcliffe, drew headlines in part for calling Puerto Rico an “island of floating garbage.”
“I don’t know him, someone put him up there. I don’t know who he is,” Trump told ABC’s Scott.
Trump also insisted he didn’t hear any of the comments, even as they’ve been played on television and written about extensively. When asked what he made of them, he did not take the opportunity to denounce them, repeating that he didn’t hear the comments.
Trump expressed confidence that he will win the White House with just a week to go.
Harris set for closing pitch on The Ellipse near the Capitol and White House
Harris will deliver a speech at the Ellipse on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Harris’ campaign said she plans to paint Trump as someone who is consumed by his grievances and an endless desire for retribution, highlighting his pledge to go after those on his “enemies list” and how it contrasts with Harris’ focus on her “to-do list.”
Her closing argument will highlight what she claims is a desire for Americans to “turn the page” from Trump by stressing her plans and priorities for the country, namely the economy. The vice president has promised to bring down costs and prioritize the middle class in her “opportunity economy.”
Fallout continues from comedian’s comment on Puerto Rico at Trump rally
Trump is set to deliver remarks to reporters at 10 a.m. ET in Florida before heading to Pennsylvania — a swing state with a significant Puerto Rican population.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a radio interview on Monday: “We’re the proud home to about a half a million Puerto Ricans. I’m damn proud to be their governor.”
Trump’s campaign has tried to distance itself from comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s comments, saying they don’t reflect their views. Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, told reporters on Monday he hadn’t seen the comment made by the comedian but that people had to “stop getting so offended.”
Trump did not address the Puerto Rico comment during his rally in Georgia on Monday night, though he called the New York City event “one of the greatest rallies in the history of the world.”
Meanwhile, former President Barack Obama ripped Trump for the anti-immigrant rhetoric at his MSG rally while campaigning for Harris. “These are fellow citizens he’s talking about,” Obama told a crowd gathered in Philadelphia.
(WASHINGTON) — The House on Wednesday voted down Speaker Mike Johnson’s government funding plan with 14 Republicans voting against it and two others voting present.
The measure failed by a 202-222-2 margin. Three Democrats voted for the bill.
Johnson said after the vote that he was “disappointed that it didn’t pass,” but suggested there would be a “solution” to avoid a shutdown.
“We ran the play. It was the best play; it was the right one. So now we go back to the playbook. We’ll draw up another play, and we’ll come up with a solution,” John said. “I’m already talking to colleagues about their many ideas. We have time to fix the situation, and we’ll get right to it.”
“Stay posted,” he concluded his remarks without taking questions.
Johnson’s measure would have funded the government for six months but also included the SAVE Act, a bill backed by GOP leadership and former President Donald Trump that would require individuals to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to vote. Democrats said the legislation is a non-starter, noting it is already illegal for non-citizens to cast a ballot in federal elections.
Johnson was set to try to pass the funding plan last week but pulled it from the floor because he didn’t have the votes.
Some Republicans in his caucus opposed the measure because they say it would contribute to the deficit while defense hawks say they won’t vote for it because the six-month extension would effect the Department of Defense’s readiness.
Still, he was dug in on the measure and wasn’t talking about what the next steps would be. Congress needs to pass a funding measure before Oct. 1 to avoid a shutdown.
Trump openly called for Republicans to let the government close if they don’t pass the SAVE Act. He wrote on his social media platform that if they “don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET.”
Asked about Trump’s comments that Republicans should let funding lapse in such a scenario, Johnson responded “No, look, President Trump and I have talked a lot about this. We talked a lot about it with our colleagues who are building consensus on the plan. We all believe that election security is of preeminent importance right now.”
Trump again, just before the vote on Wednesday, called for a government shutdown if “every ounce” of the SAVE Act isn’t attached to a funding measure.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the chamber’s top Republican, said it would be “politically beyond stupid” to allow a shutdown to take place with just seven weeks until Election Day.
“I think we first have to wait and see what the House sends us. My only observation about this whole discussion is the one thing you cannot have is a government shutdown,” McConnell said. “It’d be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election, because certainly we’d get the blame.”
Democrats urged Johnson to drop his funding plan and bring a clean short-term measure to the floor to keep the government open.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters last week that the only path forward is a bipartisan agreement that does not include “extreme” measures, such as the SAVE Act.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday also urged the House to pass a clean bill.
“In order to avoid a shutdown, the worst thing our colleagues in the House can do right now is waste time on proposals that don’t have broad bipartisan support,” Schumer said.
(NEW YORK) — The vice-presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance could prove to be a major factor in the presidential election — given how close the race is and its potential impact with undecided voters.
The 90-minute CBS News showdown starts at 9 p.m. ET in New York City. ABC News Digital will live blog throughout the day and evening, pre-debate coverage will air at 8 p.m. on the ABC network and stream on ABC News Live — followed by the debate itself and post-debate analysis.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Harris, in fundraising pitch, says Walz ‘is ready’ to debate Vance
Vice President Harris, in a fundraising pitch email to supporters, said Walz “is ready” to debate Vance.
“In just hours, Tim Walz will debate JD Vance,” she wrote. “I know that he is ready. And it would help if he knew donors like you had his back before he got on stage.”
Harris added that “Tim has been an outstanding partner out on the campaign trail over the last two months,” and “I have the utmost confidence in the team we’ve built.”
-ABC News’ Fritz Farrow
Biden has ‘complete confidence’ in Walz: White House
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t say during the White House press briefing on Tuesday whether President Joe Biden would watch the vice presidential debate, but she said the president has “complete confidence” in Walz.
“He continues to be very busy with all of the events happening today,” she said during Tuesday’s briefing. “But he has complete confidence in Tim Walz.”
Gabbard predicts ‘stark contrast’ between Walz and Vance during debate
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard spoke to ABC News Live on Tuesday where she criticized Walz’s lack of media interviews, predicting that it will show in the debate.
“I think there’s going to be a stark contrast here, given JD Vance has been out on the road doing multiple interviews,” she told ABC News Live. “I think he’s done more interviews than any candidate in this election, whereas Tim Walz has been very quiet on that front.”
“I think this opportunity tonight, I hope, will not be more of the same kind of political theater that we’ve seen in so many of these debates, but actual substantive discussion and debate and accountability,” Gabbard — who endorsed Trump — continued.
Ahead of Tuesday’s debate, Adrienne Elrod, Harris campaign senior adviser and spokesperson, made an appearance on ABC News Live and said that Walz is taking it “very, very seriously.”
“Gov. Walz is taking this debate very, very seriously because you understand the magnitude of this moment,” Elrod said. “He’s going to continue to really talk about the Harris-Walz priorities, what their administration would look like, lowering costs for middle class families, protecting the Affordable Care Act, not getting rid of it.”
-ABC News’ Casey McShea
CBS News says mics won’t be muted for VP debate
CBS News, the network hosting the debate, said that the candidates’ microphones will not be muted, but clarified in a press release that it “reserves the right to turn off candidate microphones.”
This is a shift from the CNN presidential debate in June and the ABC News presidential debate held earlier this month, where microphones were muted unless it was the candidate’s turn to speak.
Emmer says Vance will hold Walz ‘accountable’ during VP debate
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., praised Vance on “This Week” Sunday, saying the Ohio senator will do a “great job” on Tuesday night and that “he’s got the issues on his side.”
“Vance could talk about the economy that Donald Trump fixed and that Harris and Biden broke. He can talk about the border that Trump fixed and they broke. He can talk about peace and stability around the world, which they don’t even have a clue [about]; they’ve caused all of this disruption,” Emmer said. “Once he understands that Tim Walz is just going to try and deflect and go into this folksy whatever, he’ll hold him accountable.”
-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie
Why VP debates aren’t all that important
Typically, fewer people watch vice presidential debates than presidential debates. And while presidential debates are historically one of the few things that can actually make a dent in the polls, vice presidential debates don’t have the same track record.
According to Nielsen, since 2008, presidential debates have drawn an average audience of 65.7 million people. But vice presidential debates have drawn an average of just 54.1 million viewers. But 54.1 million people is still a pretty big audience — so have past vice presidential debates actually changed the trajectory of the race?
That turns out to be a tricky question to answer. Read more here.
-538’s Nathaniel Rakich and Amina Brown
How to watch the VP debate
The 90-minute debate will air on CBS and be simulcast on the ABC network and stream on ABC News Live.
ABC pre-debate coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET; post-debate ABC News coverage will go on until 11 p.m. ET. ABC News Live, ABC News’ 24/7 streaming news channel, will provide full coverage beginning at 7 p.m. ET and run through 12 a.m. ET.
Former President Donald Trump told Kellyanne Conway on Monday morning that the debate will be stacked against his running mate. He also remained undecided on a second debate against Vice President Kamala Harris.
“So, I’d rather debate. I’d rather have another one. The problem is, we’re so far down the line,” Trump said.
Trump claimed the debates are “so stacked,” adding, “you’ll see it tomorrow with JD. It’ll be stacked.”
While on the campaign trail last weekend, Harris used Tuesday night’s debate to goad Trump into accepting a second debate, saying that it shouldn’t be the “last word.”
-ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh and Gabriella Abdul-Hakim
Vance is prepared for debate: Trump campaign
Vance is prepared for his debate against Walz, said Jason Miller, the Trump campaign senior adviser, on Monday.
The Ohio senator has turned to Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer to help him in debate rehearsals by playing Walz, sources familiar with the plans told ABC News. One of the sources said Emmer was invited to be the stand-in so Vance could prepare to take on the governor’s folksy personality.
-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie
Where’s Walz? From under the radar to the VP debate spotlight
In the eight weeks since being selected by Harris to join the ticket, Walz — originally thought to be a dark-horse selection coming from behind to beat out some better-known national figures — has effectively barnstormed the country.
“I think this is a big moment for him. Up till now, he’s been heavily managed and carefully guarded,” said Larry Jacobs, the director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota. “Now he’s going to be out there on the stage, and if he makes mistakes or comes off as not quite as authentic as he’s been claiming, I think it’ll be damaging to him, and he might make mistakes.”
Walz will not be in the spin room after the debate, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
Seven surrogates will spin for him instead, including Sens. Mark Kelly, Amy Klobuchar, Ben Ray Luján; Govs. Jared Polis and JB Pritzker; Rep. Jasmine Crockett and Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Vance to visit spin room after debate
Vance will go to the spin room following his debate with Walz, according to a source familiar with the plan.
He also participated in the spin room after former President Donald Trump’s debate against Vice President Kamala Harris in September.
Politico was first to report Vance’s plans.
-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie
Walz ‘looking forward’ to debate
While campaigning around Petoskey, Michigan, on Monday, Walz said that his “focus” was on Hurricane Helene and its destruction across the southeast, even while “looking forward” to the debate.
To prepare for Tuesday night, Walz used Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as a Vance stand-in, who “surprised everyone by showing up to prep in a cheap red tie instead of camp casual attire,” according to a source familiar.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray
Walz, Vance set for tight-race showdown
Sometimes, vice-presidential debates tend not to matter much and are quickly forgotten.
But tonight’s showdown in New York City could matter more than most given how close the presidential race is at the moment.
Many undecided voters – who could end up deciding the election – will get their first chance to hear at length from the Harris and Trump running mates.
The CBS News debate – where mics will be unmuted and the candidates will have to do their own fact-checking – starts at 9 p.m. ET.
The ABC network will carry the debate live with pre-debate coverage beginning at 8 p.m. ET. ABC News Live will stream pre-debate coverage, the debate and post-debate analysis and ABC News Digital/538 will live blog during the debate with key takeaways afterward.
(CHICAGO) — Vice President Kamala Harris has rarely discussed her gender or racial identity on the 2024 campaign trail — not even responding directly to Donald Trump falsely questioning whether she was truly Black.
But at the Democratic National Convention this week, trailblazing Black women have set the stage for Harris on Thursday to make history as the first Black and South Asian woman to accept a major party’s nomination for president.
First it was Michelle Obama, who despite her aversion to partisan politics reentered the spotlight to back “my girl Kamala Harris.”
In rousing remarks on Tuesday, Obama said she and Harris were similarly raised by mothers who believed in the promise of America and encouraged them to do something for others.
“So, with that voice in her head, Kamala went out and she worked hard in school, graduating from an HBCU, earning her law degree at a state school,” she said. “And then she went on to work for the people, fighting to hold lawbreakers accountable, strengthening the rule of law, fighting to give folks better wages, cheaper prescription drugs, a good education, decent health care, child care, elder care.”
“From a middle-class household, Kamala worked her way up to become vice president of the United States of America,” Obama said, prompting loud applause.
The former first lady also had some of the sharpest words yet for Trump on the issue of race, as she reflected on her family being the target of some of his vitriolic rhetoric and warned Harris is likely to face the same.
“For years, Donald Trump did everything in his power to try to make people fear us,” she said. “See, his limited, narrow view of the world made him feel threatened by the existence of two hard-working, highly educated, successful people who happen to be Black. I want to know who’s going to tell him, who’s going to tell him, that the job he is currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?”
“It’s his same old con. His same old con. Doubling down on ugly, misogynistic, racist lies as a substitute for real ideas and solutions that will actually make people’s lives better,” she added.
The following night, television legend Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance to endorse Harris. In doing so, Winfrey reinforced Harris’ historic path to the nomination and possibly the presidency.
Her speech included a tribute to Tessie Provost Williams, one of the “New Orleans Four” who helped integrate the city’s public schools in 1960. Williams died earlier this year at the age of 69.
“It was the grace and guts and courage of women like Tessie Prevost Williams that paved the way for another young girl, who nine years later became part of the second class to integrate the public schools in Berkeley, California,” Winfrey said, the other young girl being Harris.
During the 2019 Democratic primary race, Harris famously mentioned her backstory with busing. In one of the most salient moments of her campaign, she sparred with President Joe Biden on stage at the debate about school segregation and busing.
“There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bused to school every day,” Harris said, “and that little girl was me.”
Winfrey framed the election as a series of choices between common sense and nonsense, bitterness and joy.
“Soon and very soon, we’re going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, two idealistic, energetic immigrants — how this child grew up to become the 47th President of the United States,” Winfrey said. “That is the best of America.”
It remains to be seen if Harris plays on similar themes as she accepts the nomination on Thursday, which will mark the biggest speech of her political career.
Among her key objectives for the address, a campaign official said, is to share her personal story as well as her professional background.
The official said Harris will root her optimism about the future in her faith in the American people.