(WASHINGTON) — Election eve has arrived with the race for the White House still very tight — with the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll out Sunday showing Kamala Harris slightly ahead nationally but Donald Trump ahead in some key swing states — and the two candidates deadlocked in Pennsylvania.
Harris is spending her last full day campaigning in battleground Pennsylvania while Trump is hitting the trail in North Carolina and Pennsylvania before ending the day in Michigan.
Musk’s attorney says winners of America PAC giveaway not chosen by chance
At an ongoing hearing in Philadelphia over Elon Musk and his super PAC’s $1 million voter sweepstakes, a defense attorney said the giveaway is a way to recruit spokespeople for America PAC, while the Philadelphia district attorney testified it is a “scam.”
According to defense attorney Chris Gober, the recipients of the million-dollar checks sign contracts after being selected from a pool of people who signed the petition to serve as a spokesperson for the PAC. Tomorrow’s winner has already been decided to be a registered voter from Michigan.
“They were not chosen by chance,” Gober said during the hearing in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas.
Minutes later, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s team played a video in court where Musk vowed the money would be awarded “randomly.”
“So I have a surprise for you, which is that we are going to be awarding a million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election,” Musk told a crowd in Pennsylvania on Oct. 19.
Testifying from the witness stand, Krasner slammed the giveaway as a “scam” and “grift” intended to “flood money into American elections.”
“That ain’t a contract and that’s not employment,” an animated Krasner, the first witness in the hearing, said. “There are certain words that stick out — awarding. Doesn’t sound like a spokesperson contract.”
“It is unquestionably supposed to be random selection despite what I think is a very disingenuous version of it that I think I heard today,” Krasner said.
Krasner testified that the America PAC has effectively scammed Philadelphia residents out of their personal information — which they entered to sign the petition to enter into the giveaway — while the giveaway never actually offered them a random chance of winning the million-dollar prize.
“They were scammed for their information,” said Krasner, who is asking a judge to immediately stop the giveaway.
-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous
Former Rep. Liz Cheney responds to Trump’s violent rhetoric about her, compares him to an autocrat
Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney responded to former President Donald Trump’s attacks on her in an interview with ABC’s “The View” on Monday, including a remark he made suggesting she should “have guns trained on her face.”
“He knows what he’s doing,” Cheney said. “He knows it’s a threat with the intent to intimidate. Obviously, the intimidation won’t work.”
Cheney emphasized Trump’s history of violent rhetoric, including how he responded to the violence on Jan. 6.
“For over three hours, he watched police officers be brutally beaten. He was told the vice president had been evacuated, he said, ‘So what?'” Cheney said. “People were rushing in, pleading with him, ‘Tell the mob to leave,’ and he wouldn’t.”
“That level of depravity, he knows he has no defense to that, and he knows that the American people will not entrust again with power anyone who would do something that cruel,” she continued. “And so because he can’t respond to that, he tries to change the subject, he tries to threaten. It’s what autocrats do to try to get their political adversaries to be silent.”
Vance: ‘Tomorrow is our last chance’
JD Vance addressed voters in Wisconsin during a rally in La Crosse on Monday.
“Tomorrow is our last chance,” Trump’s running mate said. “Tomorrow is the big day when we are going to vote in very big numbers in the state of Wisconsin. We’re going to vote for change. We’re going to vote for American prosperity.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is also campaigning in Wisconsin on Monday. Vance called it “tough work” to “convince the American people” that Harris can be president.
“I think that’s the toughest job in the United States of America,” Vance said, saying Harris is “more of the same” high grocery prices, unaffordable housing and “wide open border.”
Alabama GOP mobilizes 400 poll workers in Georgia and Alabama
The Alabama Republican Party announced on Monday it has launched its most comprehensive poll watcher deployment, with more than 400 poll watchers and election lawyers in Georgia and Alabama.
Over 200 Alabama poll watchers and dozens of election lawyers will be stationed in targeted districts across Alabama, which the party says is part of an effort to ensure a “secure and transparent election process.” The Alabama GOP added that the placement of election lawyers across the state “provides an extra layer of security and real-time responsiveness.”
The Alabama GOP is also deploying more than 200 poll watchers to Georgia, supporting the critical southern battleground state on behalf of former President Donald Trump’s campaign.
-ABC News’ Beatrice Peterson
Trump speaks at campaign rally in Raleigh
At a campaign rally Monday in Raleigh, former President Donald Trump urged his supporters to turn up to the polls on Election Day.
“If we get everybody out and vote, there’s not a thing they can do,” Trump told the crowd of North Carolinians, saying the state was “ours to lose.”
Trump smeared the Democratic Party as a “horrendously dangerous party that’s going to destroy our country.”
“We cannot let that happen,” he said. “So here’s my only purpose in even being here today: Get out and vote.”
Musk doesn’t show at hearing on Philly DA’s challenge to $1 million giveaways
Elon Musk was a no-show at the hearing over his $1 million voter sweepstakes in the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas on Monday.
Entering court without his client, Musk’s attorney, Chris Gober, criticized Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner for wanting to “silence Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump.”
“We don’t allow our rights to be trampled upon bipartisan agendas masquerading as legal arguments,” Gober said.
In a late filing this morning, Krasner’s attorney continued to push for Musk to attend the hearing in person because his testimony would demonstrate “he is the beating heart of America PAC’s unlawful lottery and deceptive/unfair practices scheme.”
“Musk cannot distract from his central role by saying that he wants to be busy out campaigning, rather than attending to his responsibilities to this Court,” attorney John Summers said in the filing.
Earlier this morning, America PAC announced that the newest winner of their daily $1 million giveaway is a registered voter from Phoenix. One day remains until the sweepstakes ends on Election Day.
-ABC News’ Peter Charalambous and Chris Boccia
How Nebraska’s ‘blue dot’ could prove pivotal in the Electoral College
Amid an increasingly tight election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in several key swing states, Nebraska, and more specifically, its 2nd Congressional District, has taken on an outsize role in this year’s presidential election.
Because Nebraska currently awards three of its five Electoral College votes based on the results in each of its three congressional districts, the so-called “blue dot,” as the 2nd district has come to be known, could be critical to either campaign’s path to 270 electoral votes.
Early vote tops 78 million
As of 5:30 a.m. ET on Monday, more than 78 million Americans have voted early (a combination of absentee and early, in-person totals), according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.
The total breaks down into 42,654,364 in-person early votes and 35,348,858 mail ballots returned.
The number of in-person early votes has surpassed 2020’s total number of in-person early votes. However, the overall number of early votes so far (including mail-in and absentee ballots) is still lower than 2020’s overall number.
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim
Jeffries says Republicans ‘will take a blow torch’ to social security
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Good Morning America on Monday that Democrats are “on the right side” of the presidential election’s most pressing issues.
“The extreme MAGA Republicans have clearly and unequivocally articulated what they will do to America moving forward,” Jeffries said.
“They will take a blow torch to social security, they will take a blow torch to Medicare, they will take a blow torch to the Affordable Care Act,” Jeffries said.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Jeffries said, is “closing with a positive vision” while former President Donald Trump and his Republican party are “trying to tear us apart.”
Jeffries will become House speaker if Democrats win back control of the chamber this week.
“The majority of current House Republicans voted not to certify the election in 2020,” Jeffries said. “My colleagues on the other side of the aisle don’t seem to be capable of unequivocally saying that they will certify the election and the verdict that is rendered by the American people.”
“As House Democrats, that’s what we will do,” Jeffries added.
“We believe in democracy even when we disagree with the outcome. That’s been part of what’s made America the greatest democracy in the history of the world.”
Candidates vie for every vote in key swing states
Highlighting how important Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes are to her campaign, Kamala Harris is spending her last full day on the trail with multiple events in the state.
Her search for voters includes a rally in Allentown and then she ends with an event in Philadelphia.
Donald Trump is trying to shore up support in battleground North Carolina – where Harris has made inroads – for a rally in Raleigh, before he, too, heads to Pennsylvania for events in Reading and Pittsburgh before ending his final day campaigning in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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