With 2 weeks to go, Trump, not taking chances, turns focus to North Carolina
(NORTH CAROLINA) — Donald Trump isn’t taking any chances in battleground North Carolina — making four stops in the state over two days — on Tuesday as well as Monday.
The polls here are tight. But more than that, the former president’s advisers are keenly aware that some of the state’s counties hardest hit by flooding from Hurricane Helene are deeply conservative.
He needs voters to turn out in those counties to win here again.
Looking through the state’s election data, in 2020 Trump won 23 of the 25 counties included in the federal disaster declaration in North Carolina.
While Trump is still making false claims about the administration’s response to the storm, there’s been a notable shift in one area in particular: early voting.
After railing against mail-in voting and early voting for years, he’s now urging people to vote early if they can.
At his rally Monday night, signs urged residents to make a plan to get to the polls.
Both Democrats and Republicans feel optimistic about the strong early voting numbers in this state.
And we saw why as we traveled across the state — long lines stretched outside polling locations with Democrats and Republicans lining up one after another, ready to cast their ballots.
We met voter Roger Mills in Charlotte. He told us he doesn’t love everything Donald Trump says but he is voting for him anyway.
“I don’t like the way the country’s headed right now. I’m one of those that thinks we’re headed in the wrong direction. So, I thought, hey, I liked it in 2016 to 2020 I liked it well, except for the pandemic. So, I said I’d like to get back to that,” Mills said.
He called the former president “abrasive.”
“He talks without thinking sometimes, but I like his policies — his policies, I believe are good for America,” he said, adding, “[Harris] flip-flopped so many times I can’t tell where she stands.”
Angela Larry was at that polling location, too. She was eager to cast her ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris.
“I’m excited! I used to wait for Election Day to be part of the process but I’m part of the process today,” she said after she voted early. As a mother, she told us she supports Harris because of her stance on reproductive rights.
“We have a choice. Our bodies. We are females. We need to make the decisions. I don’t like that someone who doesn’t have a clue — that can’t walk the walk — has something to say what women go through,” she said.
Like many voters we’ve met — Angela Larry is just ready for it all to be over.
“I just want to get it over with. I’m ready for it to be over.”
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump responded Monday to special counsel Jack Smith’s move to dismiss the two felony cases against him.
“These cases, like all of the other cases I have been forced to go through, are empty and lawless, and should never have been brought,” he wrote on his social media platform.
“It was a political hijacking, and a low point in the History of our Country that such a thing could have happened, and yet, I persevered, against all odds, and WON. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump added.
Vice President-elect JD Vance said Trump could have “spent the rest of his life in prison” had the outcome of the 2024 race been different.
“If Donald J. Trump had lost an election, he may very well have spent the rest of his life in prison,” Vance wrote on X. “These prosecutions were always political. Now it’s time to ensure what happened to President Trump never happens in this country again.”
Smith, in back-to-back court filings, cited the Justice Department’s “categorical” policy that he said bars the prosecution of a sitting president as the reason for his request to drop the federal election interference case and the classified documents case.
Trump pleaded not guilty to four charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States, brought by Smith in connection with Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden. The case was plagued with delays and developments, including a Supreme Court decision that a president is entitled to some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during their time in office.
Trump also pleaded not guilty to the 40 criminal counts related to his handling of classified material after leaving the White House. The case was dismissed by a federal judge in Florida in July, though Smith had been appealing the decision.
During his presidential campaign, Trump told supporters he was their “retribution” and that he was “being indicted for you.”
Steven Cheung, the incoming White House communications director, called Smith’s decision a “major victory for the rule of law” and said Americans want Trump to end “weaponization of our justice system.”
Some of Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill also celebrated the development.
“Huge win for America, President Trump, and the fight against the weaponization of the justice system,” House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X. “This was ALWAYS about politics and not the law.”
California Democratic Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, however, said the Justice Department and the courts “failed to uphold the principle that no one is above the law.”
Schiff was a member of the House Jan. 6 Committee that spent more than a year investigating the Capitol attack. The panel, which voted to recommend charges against Trump, identified Trump and his actions after the 2020 election as the “central cause” of what transpired on Jan. 6, 2021.
“DOJ by neglecting to promptly investigate the events of Jan 6, and the courts by willfully delaying progress of the case and providing immunity,” Schiff wrote on X. “The public deserved better.”
(NEW YORK) — Vice President Kamala Harris went after Donald Trump for his false claims about FEMA in the wake of devastating storms in the Southeast during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday.
“It’s profound and it is the height of irresponsibility and, frankly, callousness,” Harris said of Trump’s claims. “Lives are literally at stake right now.”
Harris described personal stories she heard from those affected by Hurricane Helene and its aftermath after traveling to Georgia and North Carolina.
“People are losing their home with no hope of ever being able to reconstruct or return, and the idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself — but this is so consistent about Donald Trump,” she said. “He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about suffering of other people and understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it’s to lift people up.”
Harris’ sit-down on “The View” marked her first live interview since becoming the Democratic nominee. She is ramping up her media appearances this week with now just one month until Election Day.
Harris was also asked about a comment from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accusing Harris of only getting involved in storm response out of political motivation.
“She has no role in this,” DeSantis said on Monday. “In fact, she’s been vice president for three-and-a-half years. I’ve dealt with a number of storms under this administration. She has never contributed anything to any of these efforts, and so what I think is selfish is trying to blunder into this.”
ABC News reported DeSantis declined to take a call with Harris in the last several days, though DeSantis later said he was unaware of the attempted outreach.
“I have called and talked within the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, Democrat and Republican governors — called, taken the call, answered the call, had a conversation,” Harris said. “So, obviously this is not an issue that is about partisanship or politics for certain leaders but maybe is for others.”
Harris then turned to Hurricane Milton and urged any Floridians tuning in to the show to heed to calls to evacuate. The storm is expected to make landfall on Wednesday evening as possibly a Category 4 hurricane.
“This one is going to be different, and that’s why I called the governor about what Florida has received in terms of impact,” she said.
President Biden, after being briefed on Hurricane Milton on Tuesday, was asked if Harris had been helpful in preparing for the storm. Biden nodded his head and said “yes.”
Biden also criticized those spreading misinformation about FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, calling it “un-American.”
“It puts people in certain things where they panic. Where they really, really, really worry,” Biden said. “They think we’re not being taken care of. And it really is — that’s going to sound, I’m gonna use an old phrase, it’s un-American. It really is. People are scared to death.”
Biden said he was able to speak with all the governors of states that will be affected by Hurricane Milton, including a call with DeSantis last night. Biden said DeSantis has been “cooperative” and that the Florida governor said he’s received everything he needs.
“I made clear they should reach out, including to me directly, with everything else they may need as they see this storm hit,” Biden said. “I gave them my personal number to contact me here in the White House.”
(WASHINGTON) — Catholic voters have always been a key voting bloc in every presidential election, with candidates vying hard for their support.
And this year, the battle for their votes has gotten aggressive as former President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that Vice President Kamala Harris has been anti-Catholic.
While Harris has not said the same about Trump, she has sent a message to Catholic voters that her policies are in line with their social and political views and priorities. But in reality, academics who have been studying religion’s role in politics tell ABC News that it’s not easy to pin a single label on the nation’s Catholics.
“It’s really interesting that the Catholic Church is probably one of the few places where you find people with different perspectives sitting together at Sunday Mass,” Margaret Susan Thompson, a professor of history at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, told ABC News.
Thompson and others said that if past election results are any indication, Catholic turnout and the choices they make at the polls will depend on a variety of factors.
Changing demographics show schism in voting patterns
Thompson, who has been researching Catholic vote trends, said that, as a whole, Catholics have been voting more Republican in the last 44 years after abortion became a major campaign issue for the Christians as a whole.
But over those decades, she noted that the makeup of American Catholics has also changed as the number of non-white Catholics has grown.
Since 2007, the share of American Catholics who are white has dropped by 8 percentage points, while the share who are Hispanic has increased by 4 points, according to data from the Pew Research Center.
“It has changed the map a lot,” Thompson said. “Latino Catholics have risen in numbers in the South and in swing states like Arizona and have brought their own perspectives on their faith and their beliefs.”
Ryan Burge, associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, who has compiled data on the voting patterns of the county’s religious groups, agreed.
“The Catholic vote is full of contradictions,” Burge said. “There is a lot of cross-pressures that they face. They may be white, but also a union member. They may be against LGTBQ rights but want better immigration rights.”
Burge told ABC News that the increased diversity among Catholics has also reflected a shift in the presidential races.
In 2020, 56% of Catholic voters voted Republican, according to data he compiled from Harvard University’s Cooperative Election Study. However, when the community was broken down into race, 59% of white Catholics voted Republican last election while it was only 31% of non-white Catholics voted for the GOP.
“We see the same racial trends for most religious groups,” he explained.
Not in communion with the Catholic Church’s teaching
Thompson said the diversity also extends to Catholics’ political leanings.
For example, Pew found that 61% of all Catholics find abortion should be legal in all or most cases. An ABC News/Ipsos poll found 55% of Catholics would rather the federal government restore abortion access as it was before the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade.
“Just because the hierarchy says ‘this is right, this is wrong’ doesn’t mean that every Catholic is going to follow their lead,” she said.
Burge also noted that cultural ties outside of one’s religion have factored in individual leanings of certain Catholic groups.
For example, he noted that data has shown that Latino Catholics are less in favor of promoting LGBTQ rights and socialism ideals than their white and Black counterparts.
“I think they are pulled in two directions,” he said of Latino Catholics. “Traditionally they’ve been Democratic and we’ve seen them in a majority still vote Democratic but they’ve always been culturally conservative. I think that’s where you’re seeing the shift in some Latino circles voting Republican because of the party’s messaging on those issues.”
A recent ABCNews/Ipsos poll found that Catholic likely voters are closely divided in vote preference, 51-48% Trump-Harris.
“I think they seem to be a more moderate voting bloc. I don’t think they can be taken for granted,” Burge said.
Trump slams Harris over Catholic vote on the campaign trail
Since the start of the election season, the Trump, Biden and Harris campaigns have been trying to court various religious groups.
Trump, in particular, has been sounding off in rallies, social media and interviews against Harris, calling her anti-Catholic. He’s claimed in a Truth Social post that she lost the Catholic vote due to her stance on reproductive rights and that she was “persecuting” the group.
“Any Catholic that votes for Comrade Kamala Harris should have their head examined,” he said in a Truth Social post in September.
Harris has rarely made direct comments about the Catholic vote during the campaign and did not attend the annual Al Smith Dinner hosted by the Archdiocese of New York, saying it was due to schedule conflicts.
Even though she was the first presidential candidate not to attend the dinner in 40 years, she provided a video speech that included a skit with “Saturday Night Live” alum Molly Shannon.
“The Gospel of Luke tells us that faith has the power to shine a light on those living in darkness and to guide our feet in the path of peace. In the spirit of tonight’s dinner, let us recommit to reaching across divides, to seek understanding and common ground,” she said.
Trump, in breaking with the dinner’s soft-hearted roasting, continued his attacks on Harris at the dinner.
“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,” he said.
Rhetoric does little to sway Catholic voters
Despite the media attention, the experts said that Trump’s rhetoric and back-and-forth with Harris over the Catholic vote isn’t going to move the needle.
Thompson said that there are very few undecided voters left and most voters’ preferences are locked in at this point.
She also noted Trump’s attacks and messaging are no different from the language he’s used for other religious groups, such as Jewish voters, Latino voters and Black voters.
“It’s his go-to phrase: ‘They should have their head checked,'” she said.
Thompson also noted that the sentiment applies to the Vatican.
Pope Francis weighed in on the election in September and appeared to take a middle ground, claiming “One must choose the lesser of two evils.”
“Who is the lesser of two evils? That lady or that gentleman? I don’t know,” he told reporters during a news conference.
Francis did not directly name Trump or Harris or either political party, but even while noting the church’s opposition to abortion, he also emphasized a more moderate stance on social issues.
“To send migrants away, to leave them wherever you want, to leave them … it’s something terrible, there is evil there. To send away a child from the womb of the mother is an assassination, because there is life. We must speak about these things clearly,” he said.
Thompson said that the pope has contributed to a major schism among Catholics, with more conservative members dismissing his progressive stances on LGBTQ rights and the environment and more liberal members calling him out for not shifting the church’s stance on reproductive rights.
“There is selective listening to the pope by everyone,” she said. “I don’t think that his non-endorsement is really going to change people’s minds, either.”
Burge said that, at the end of the day, the moments that are going to affect the Catholic vote are in the rhetoric and actions of the candidates in the final days.
“Politicians have always had a problem speaking about religion without sounding pandering,” he said. “The public just cares about where they stand and how they are going to tackle the issues they feel are important.”