Harris holding moderated conversations with Liz Cheney in 3 battleground states

(WASHINGTON) — As the conflict in the Middle East escalates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are both taking a break from campaigning in battleground states on Monday to memorialize the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Harris, alongside second gentleman Doug Emhoff, marked the day by planting a pomegranate tree at the vice president’s residence — a symbol of hope and righteousness in Judaism. Trump visited Ohel Chabad-Lubavitch — considered a sacred site amongst Hasidic Jews — in Queens, New York, where he had an intimate private visit to the Ohel, the gravesite of the Rebbe at the Old Montefiore Cemetery, where he was seen shaking hands with Rabbis and mingling with leaders.

Later, Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks at a remembrance event with Jewish community leaders at his own property Trump National Doral Miami, his campaign announced.

On Monday, Harris urged the country that as they reflect on the horrors of Oct. 7, they also be reminded “we cannot lose faith.”

“I will never forget October 7, and the world must never forget. What is asked of us? We must work to ensure nothing like the horrors of Oct. 7 can ever happen again, and on this solemn day, I will restate my pledge to always ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself, and that I will always work to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish people here and around the world,” Harris pledged.

To commemorate Oct. 7, Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz visited the “Nova Exhibition” — an exhibit honoring the victims of the Hamas attack — in Culver City, California, on Monday. Walz was greeted by Noa Beer, a survivor of the Oct. 7 attack and an organizer of the Nova Music Festival, and the exhibition’s event producer Virginia Fout upon his arrival at the exhibition, according to the Harris campaign.

Following Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct, 7, 2023, and Israel’s ensuing assaults on Gaza, the conflict in the Middle East has become one of the top issues this election cycle. Pressure for a cease-fire has created a rift within the Democratic Party and Republicans are attempting to capitalize on that moment while Trump’s own inflammatory comments continue to face pushback from critics.

Tune into ABC News Live at 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 7, for “Oct 7th: Race to Survive” — special coverage of the anniversary of the conflict. Veteran correspondent Matt Gutman highlights voices of Israelis and Palestinians impacted by the war and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack in Israel one year ago, and Israel responded by declaring war, thousands have reportedly been killed or injured. Israel has said its goal is to destroy Hamas and that it attempts to minimize civilian casualties as often as possible. Meanwhile, a humanitarian crisis has unfolded in Gaza, including the collapse of the health care system.

Harris, while stressing the alliance between the United States and Israel, has appealed to the humanitarian crises in Gaza and has repeatedly called for a cease-fire, including at the Democratic National Convention in August, where she officially introduced herself to the public for the first time as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential race.

The Democratic Party is divided on the issue as the war deepens with Iran’s latest attack on Israel. Although Harris has noticeably attempted to thread the needle in an attempt to bridge the ideological gap, concerns remain about whether the Biden-Harris administration lacks influence over Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a preview clip released ahead of her interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Harris remained aligned with President Joe Biden’s position, saying the administration is doing what they can to “allow Israel to defend itself” and that they will continue to put “pressure on Israel and in the region, including Arab leaders” to release the hostages and achieve a cease-fire.

She claimed the negotiations they’ve done with Netanyahu have led to open conversations and changes in Israel’s approach in the region, but dodged the question on whether Netanyahu is a “real close” ally of the U.S., saying, “the better question is: do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is yes.”

Trump on the campaign trail has made an extensive effort to court Jewish American voters, often claiming that “no President has done more for Israel than I have.” Over the course of the campaign, Trump has participated in Jewish-focused campaign events with the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Israeli-American Council.

He has also been campaigning with major donor and vocal Israel-advocate Miriam Adelson, who is investing nearly $90 million in support of Trump in the final months of the 2024 general election.

At the same time, Trump has repeatedly sparked criticism by attacking Jewish Democrats, including Emhoff and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, claiming that Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats should get their “head examined.”

“They have not been your friends. I don’t understand how anybody can support them,” Trump said during his virtual remarks at the Republican Jewish Coalition annual summit last month. “And I say it constantly. If you had them to support and you were Jewish, you have to have your head examined.”

Trump also criticized Netanyahu, saying in a TIME magazine interview published in April that the Oct. 7 attacks happened “on his watch” and that he has been “rightfully criticized” for the attacks.

“I will say this, Bibi Netanyahu rightfully has been criticized for what took place on Oct. 7,” Trump told TIME, criticizing him again for backing out on what was supposed to be a joint U.S.-Israel operation to assassinate a top Iranian general in 2020.

“It happened on his watch,” Trump said about Netanyahu and the Israel-Hamas war. “And I think it’s had a profound impact on him, despite everything. Because people said that shouldn’t have happened. They have the most sophisticated equipment.”

Still, Trump met with Netanyahu in July, insisting their relationship “was never bad.”

“We’ve had a good working relationship. I was very good to Israel, better than any president has ever been,” Trump claimed after meeting with Netanyahu.

Trump has insisted in his campaign messages that the world was a safer place under his administration, claiming that the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel would not have happened under his presidency and that foreign adversaries are launching attacks because of the Biden-Harris administration’s weakness.

“Ever since Iran has been exporting terror all over the world and, it’s been just unraveling, the whole Middle East has been unraveling, but of course, the whole world has been unraveling since we left office,” Trump said at a campaign event in Waunakee, Wisconsin, last Tuesday just after Iran launched missile attacks on Israel.

Harris also met with Netanyahu in July. After the meeting, she reiterated that Israel has the right to defend itself but added, “how it does so matters.” Harris said that she talked to Netanyahu about her “serious concern” about the collateral damage and suffering of Gazan civilians.

Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people in Israel, with some 250 people kidnapped. And more than 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

“With over 2 million people facing high levels of food insecurity, and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, what has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating; the images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence, who did not endorse or support President-elect Donald Trump during the 2024 election cycle, said Friday that he opposes Trump’s choice of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services because of Kennedy’s support for abortion access.

Pence said in a statement that choosing Kennedy is a departure from what he framed as the Trump-Pence administration’s general opposition to abortion access.

“I believe the nomination of RFK Jr. to serve as Secretary of HHS is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the Republican Party and our nominees for decades,” Pence wrote.

Pence claimed that Kennedy, for most of his career, has supported positions such as “abortion on demand during all nine months of pregnancy” and restoring Roe v. Wade.

“The pro-life movement has always looked to the Republican party to stand for life, to affirm an unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed,” Pence wrote.

“On behalf of tens of millions of pro-life Americans, I respectfully urge Senate Republicans to reject this nomination and give the American people a leader who will respect the sanctity of life as secretary of Health and Human Services,” he added.

During his 2024 run, Trump said laws surrounding abortion access should be left up to individual states to decide.

Kennedy’s own position on abortion had lacked some clarity throughout his independent presidential campaign, which he suspended in August as he endorsed Trump.

He said at one point that he opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe v. Wade, and in one interview he argued that “we have to leave it to the women rather than the state.”

In 2023, he told NBC News he would sign a federal ban on the procedure after three months, but his campaign later walked back the comments, saying he “misunderstood” the question. In May 2024, he said he advocates a woman’s right to choose an abortion at any point during her pregnancy.

He later wrote in a post on X, after some blowback, that he “would allow appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy, just as Roe v. Wade did.” And in June, he wrote on social media, “Abortion has been a notoriously divisive issue in America, but actually I see an emerging consensus: that abortion should be legal up until a certain number of weeks, and restricted thereafter.”

Some groups that oppose abortion access have also criticized Trump’s decision to pick Kennedy.

In a statement to ABC News, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said her group has “concerns” about Kennedy leading HHS.

“There’s no question that we need a pro-life HHS secretary, and of course, we have concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Dannenfelser wrote. “I believe that no matter who is HHS secretary, baseline policies set by President Trump during his first term will be re-established.”

Groups that support abortion access have also criticized Trump’s selection of Kennedy.

Mini Timmaraju, CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, wrote in a statement Thursday, “Trump ran on a promise not to ban abortion nationwide, but his cabinet nominees are Project 2025 come to life. RFK Jr. is an unfit, unqualified extremist who cannot be trusted to protect the health, safety, and reproductive freedom of American families.”

ABC News reached out to Kennedy for comment.

ABC News’ Olivia Rubin, Ben Siegel, and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — A historic election that saw an incumbent president drop his campaign, a woman rise to the top of the Democratic ticket and multiple assassination attempts against the Republican candidate will come to an end on Nov. 5.

But the outcome may not be known on election night.

It took four days for the race to be called for President Joe Biden in 2020 as mail-in voting expansions, and other changes made to help Americans participate during a global pandemic, delayed counting in several key states.

“It can take a few days and sometimes more,” said Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at University of Wisconsin-Madison.

An especially tight race, as expected this year, can make it even more difficult to call a winner in the hours after polls close, experts told ABC News. Polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump neck-and-neck heading into Election Day.

Each state has its own rules to administer elections, including different ways to process mail ballots and deadlines for curing signatures or other issues, which means some may take longer than others to tabulate results.

538 has compiled a complete guide to poll closing times, vote counting and when to expect results in every state.

“There are a variety of things that have to be done because there are these safeguards in place to try and minimize the possibility of fraud,” said Mitchell Brown, a professor of political science at Auburn University. “And so in states that have those rules, it takes a while in order to process all the ballots.”

Trump, in 2020, prematurely declared victory before all votes were counted. Misinformation spread online about the integrity of the election as the country awaited a final result and Trump or his allies later challenged the outcome by baselessly claiming widespread fraud, particularly with mail ballots.

“Not knowing the result on election night is not an indication of election malfeasance ever,” Brown emphasized.

All eyes will be on the seven swing states that will likely determine whether Harris or Trump win the Electoral College: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In two of those states — Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — mail or absentee ballots cannot even begin to be processed until the morning of Election Day. That includes opening envelopes, verifying voter information and preparing them to be scanned before they can be counted, which can lead to delays.

In 2020, Wisconsin wasn’t called for either candidate until the day after Election Day and Pennsylvania was called the Saturday after Election Day.

In other key battleground states, mail or absentee ballots may be processed but cannot be counted until Election Day, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That includes Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina.

In Arizona, a state that votes heavily by mail, mail or absentee ballots received before Election Day can be processed and counted upon receipt. But a sizable portion of those ballots get placed in drop boxes on Election Day, and those results may not be collected or counted until polls close, which may hold up a clear result depending on how close the race is.

In Nevada, another state where the presidential race wasn’t called until the Saturday after Election Day in 2020, some changes were made to help speed up vote counting — including allowing mail or absentee ballots to start being counted 15 days before Election Day.

“It’s really a product of the laws and depending where the Electoral College spotlight is in any given year, it can mean a faster count or a slower one,” Burden said.

While news organizations often call a winner based on analysis of the vote count as its reported, results are not official until states certify them. States have their own certification deadlines, some of which extend into December, according to the Election Assistance Commission.

Recounts and legal challenges, especially litigation related to certification, could arise between a race being called by media networks and the results being certified.

On Dec. 17, electors will meet in the states to vote for president and vice president.

Election officials in some key states are already warning that results may not come in on election night, and that it is normal.

“We will always prioritize accuracy and security over efficiency,” Michigan’s Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson recently said on CBS, estimating her state will be able to have a result by end of day on Nov. 6. “Understanding how much people will want those results, we’re still going to make sure the process is secure and accurate before we put anything out to the public.”

“We want to make sure we have an accurate count, and like we did in 2020, have a free and fair, safe and secure election,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on ABC’s “This Week.”

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