CNN Politics
Live Updates
Harris to participate in CNN town hall in Pennsylvania as Trump campaigns in Georgia
Maureen Chowdhury
By Maureen Chowdhury, CNN
Updated 1:35 PM EDT, Wed October 23, 2024
Harris responds after John Kelly issues public warning about Trump
03:01 - Source: CNN
What you need to know
• Final campaign sprint: Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are in key battleground states today with less than two weeks until Election Day. Meanwhile, the latest CNN Poll of Polls average of national polling still finds no clear leader in the presidential race.
• Trump heads to Georgia: Trump will speak at a rally in Duluth, Georgia, while his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, campaigns in Nevada.
• Tonight’s CNN town hall with Harris: CNN will hold a presidential town hall with Harris outside of Philadelphia at 9 p.m. ET, where she will take questions from a live audience of undecided and persuadable voters. Trump declined to participate in a previously proposed debate on the same date, as well as a CNN town hall. Watch CNN’s special coverage of the event in the video above this page at 8 p.m. ET.
• What to know before you cast your vote: With early voting already underway in several states, read CNN’s voter handbook to see how to vote in your area, and read up on the 2024 candidates and their proposals on key issues.
1 New Update
18 min ago
Harris voices support for $15 minimum wage to draw contrast with Trump
From CNN's Tami Luhby
Vice President Kamala Harris said for the first time Tuesday that she backs hiking the federal minimum wage to at least $15 an hour after blasting former President Donald Trump for dodging a question about whether he wants to raise it.
As the two rivals race to win over voters in the final weeks of the campaign, Harris and Trump have both tried to demonstrate their support for working-class Americans. The federal minimum wage — which has been stuck at $7.25 since 2009 — has become a talking point recently, especially after Trump temporarily worked as a fry attendant at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Sunday.
While Harris has said for months that she would push to raise the minimum wage, she did not specify a threshold until asked by NBC News on Tuesday.
“At least $15 an hour, but we’ll work with Congress, right? That’s something that is going through Congress,” Harris told NBC as part of its interview with the candidate.
“So, there is a big difference between Donald Trump and me on a number of issues, including this, where I absolutely believe we must raise minimum wage and that hardworking Americans, whether they’re working at McDonald’s or anywhere else, should have at least the ability to be able to take care of their family and take care of themselves in a way that allows them to actually be able to sustain their needs,” she said ahead of a campaign stop in Michigan.
Trump, however, didn’t answer directly when asked during his brief stint at McDonald’s whether he thinks the federal minimum wage should be lifted, saying “Well, I think this: I think these people work hard, they’re great.”
Asked to respond to Harris’ support for a $15 minimum wage, the Trump campaign cited a statement from Republican National Committee spokesperson Anna Kelly that accused Harris of “lowering real wages and raising prices via reckless spending.”
Read more about the longtime Democratic goal of a $15 minimum wage here.
25 min ago
USPS says election delivery is going well — but urges voters to mail ballots early
From CNN's Gabe Cohen
The United States Postal Service touted strong election mail performance so far this month but is still urging voters to mail ballots early to avoid delivery delays.
During the first three weeks of October, USPS delivered 99.9% of mail-in ballots to election officials within seven days, and 99.7% within three days, Postal Service officials said during a press call Wednesday.
The Postal Service recommends voters put their ballot in the mail at least one week before Election Day to ensure it arrives on-time to be counted.
Ahead of Election Day, USPS said it has rolled out several “extraordinary measures” to address voter mail delays, including extra deliveries and pickups, local handling and transportation of ballots, and specialized sorting plans for election mail at postal service facilities.
Election officials have been raising red flags about mail delays and a potential impact on this November’s election for months.
“We have ongoing outreach and communication,” USPS Director of Election and Government Mail Services Adrienne Marshall said. “We’ve amplified that, of course, as we get closer to the election. Nationwide, we have excellent election mail performance, and when we are made aware of issues, then we jump right in and we resolve those and address those very quickly. We’ll continue to do that as we leading up to the general election.”
As communities in North Carolina and Florida recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, officials have raised concerns about election mail delivery for voters in impacted areas. Postal Service officials say they are down to 4,600 non-deliveries in North Carolina and 600 in Florida.
“We work with the election officials, and the election officials are also putting measures in place to ensure that that voters have the opportunity to vote, whether it’s through mail or through other means in those impacted areas,” USPS Executive Vice President Steve Monteith said.
23 min ago
Harris says Kelly's remarks offer "a window into who Donald Trump really is"
From CNN's Shania Shelton, Sam Fossum and Eric Bradner
Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday accused rival Donald Trump of wanting “unchecked power” in response to comments by John Kelly, the former president’s onetime chief of staff, that Trump fits “into the general definition of fascist” and wanted the “kind of generals Hitler had.”
“We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be what do the American people want,” Harris said at the Naval Observatory in Washington.
Harris said Kelly’s remarks offered a “window into who Donald Trump really is from the people who know him best,” while also calling it “deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler.”
Harris specifically criticized Trump’s alleged comment that he needed “the kind of generals that Hitler had.”
“He does not want a military that is loyal to the United States Constitution,” the vice president said. “He wants a military who will be loyal to him personally, one that will obey his orders even when he tells them to break the law or abandon their oath to the Constitution of the United States.”
Kelly, the retired Marine general who served as Trump’s chief of staff from 2017 to 2019, spoke about his onetime boss in a series of interviews published Tuesday. He also told The New York Times that Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”
Kelly confirmed to The Atlantic that Trump had said he wished his military personnel showed him the same deference Hitler’s Nazi generals showed the German dictator during World War II. Kelly also told The Times that Trump had praised Hitler: “He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.’”
Trump’s team has denied that the former president praised Hitler. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement Tuesday that Kelly had “totally beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated because he failed to serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff and currently suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
Democrats have quickly seized on Kelly’s comments as warnings continue to pour out from former Trump White House aides about how the former president views the office and how he would exercise power if elected again.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said Tuesday night at a rally in Wisconsin that the reported comments about Hitler’s generals “makes me sick as hell.”
1 hr 16 min ago
"Putin wants Donald Trump to win," Walz says when asked about Russia-produced false content smearing him
From CNN's Aaron Pellish
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz declined to directly address reports that Russian operatives created and amplified false content online attempting to smear him, but said it’s “very clear” that Russian President Vladimir Putin “wants Donald Trump to win” November’s presidential election.
Walz was in St. Paul and casted his vote on Wednesday, afterward reporters asked the vice presidential nominee about reports that US intelligence agencies have assessed he is the subject of an effort by Russia to influence the presidential election through creating false online content.
Walz declined to address the specific details of the reporting but sought to link former president Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I got nothing to say on this misinformation, but it’s very clear the — Putin wants Donald Trump to win. Donald Trump wants Putin to win. And so, that’s all I would say,” Walz said.
Some background: US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday that Russian operatives created and amplified false online content in an attempt to smear Walz. Some posts circulating the fake content on X garnered hundreds of thousands of views and were amplified by right-wing personalities, in an episode that had echoes of the bizarre and false “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory that attempted to smear Democrats in 2016.
1 hr 28 min ago
Harris discusses creating pathway to citizenship for immigrants in pitch to Latino voters
From CNN's Ebony Davis
Vice President Kamala Harris again detailed her plans for immigrants who are seeking a pathway to US citizenship during a pretaped interview with Telemundo.
“We need smart, humane immigration policy in America that includes a pathway to citizenship, putting more resources at the border in terms of security, honoring America’s history as a country of immigrants, not vilifying people who are fleeing harm, but instead, creating an orderly system for them to actually be able to make their case. That’s where I stand,” Harris said to Telemundo’s Julio Vaqueiro.
Harris criticized Donald Trump for his extreme rhetoric around immigration as she drew a contrast with the former president on the issue.
“I stand on the principle that we should not be talking about immigrants as “poisoning the blood of America,” Harris said in reference to past comments from Trump that is often employed by White supremacists and nativists in comments that drew rebuke from civil rights groups.
“There has been bipartisan support in the past, and I think this election and how Latinos vote can help pave the pathway for the solutions,” Harris said. “Donald Trump is not going to push for a pathway for citizenship. He did not in the past, he will not in the future. We know Donald Trump and how he talks about immigration.”
The vice president stressed the importance of Latino voters ahead of Election Day as she seeks to shore up support from the key demographic.
“I cannot emphasize more strongly, the Latino vote in this election is very important. And I know well enough that the people that we are talking about believe in our country, love our country, are dedicated to its growth, its prosperity, and the opportunity that everyone should have to dignity and the ability to be treated with respect,” Harris said.
“That is not Donald Trump’s future. Donald Trump is trying to take us backward. He is not trying to take us forward,” she added.
1 hr 51 min ago
Trump says he’ll be voting early
From CNN's Veronica Stracqualursi
Former President Donald Trump said he will be voting early in the November election, after expressing some hesitation and admitted that he’s feeling “very mixed” about how he wants to vote.
“I really feel, I’m very mixed, you know, I have the old standard of the Tuesday vote and all,” Trump said on Fox News Radio’s Brian Kilmeade Show in an interview that aired Wednesday. “Voting early, I guess would be good. But, you know, people have different feelings about it. But the main thing is, you got to get out. You got to vote,” he added.
“And I’ll be voting early. I’ll be voting early,” Trump went on to say.
Asked which battleground state worries him the most, Trump said, “All of them, I mean, they cheat.”
He responded to former President Barack Obama’s comments that the reason the economy was strong under his presidency was because he inherited Obama’s economy. “We had a whole different thing, a whole different philosophy. My economy did good because I got the tax cuts,” Trump said.
Of his upcoming rally in Madison Square Garden, Trump said he chose the venue because, “We’re really looking to win New York, if we can.”
“We think there’s a chance of winning New York first time since, well, long time, many, many decades. And we think there’s a real chance with what’s going on, with the migrants taking over the city, taking over, the whole state, frankly,” he said.
He also predicted that the New York Yankees would beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series.
1 hr 55 min ago
Walz commends Trump’s former chief of staff for revealing comment about the GOP presidential nominee
From CNN's Aaron Pellish
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz thanked John Kelly, the retired Marine general and former chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, for coming forward in a series of interviews on Tuesday with revealing comments from the Republican presidential nominee that “fits into the general definition of fascist,” according to Kelly.
“I think for many of us, the last 24 hours certainly have been a bit shaking with the reporting coming out in the Atlantic Donald Trump’s dissension into madness, and John Kelly, who I thank for showing the courage to come forward truly, telling the world. Those closest to Donald Trump know how dangerous he is,” Walz told reporters after casting his ballot in St. Paul on Wednesday.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee added, “Look Donald Trump made it very clear that this is an election about Donald Trump taking full control of the military to use against his political enemies, taking full control of the Department of Justice to prosecute those who disagree with him, taking full control of the media on what is told and what is told to the American public.”
Walz said that he appreciated Kelly for revealing that Trump does not understand the Constitution or respect the rule of law. “If there was ever a red line, he has stepped across it, and so I appreciate General Kelly coming out at this moment,” Walz said.
1 hr 45 min ago
Gold Star dad says Trump is a “wannabe dictator”
From CNN's Michelle Shen
Gold Star parent Khizr Khan on Wednesday called Donald Trump a “wannabe dictator” as he encouraged senior military officials to denounce the former president.
Khan — whose son, Humayun, was killed in Iraq in 2004 — was speaking with Jim Acosta on “CNN Newsroom” following statements by Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly, who said Trump is an admirer of authoritarians.
“(Military officials) must stand, and they must announce and denounce Donald Trump and his rhetoric and his threat to our democracy,” Khan told Acosta.
Khan said Kelly was fulfilling his oath to serve by highlighting a legitimate threat against democracy.
“Our flag officers, when they retire, their oath to defend the country does not expire,” Khan said. “They are under oath to defend verbally and stand up to defend our democracy and our country and our nation.”
Kelly said in an interview with The New York Times that was published on Tuesday that the former president “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.”
“Certainly the former president is in the far-right area, he’s certainly an authoritarian, admires people who are dictators — he has said that. So he certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” Kelly said.
Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement that Kelly had “totally beclowned himself with these debunked stories he has fabricated because he failed to serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff and currently suffers from a debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.”
The elder Khan emerged as a vociferous critic of Trump during the 2016 election, when he spoke at the Democratic National Convention and told the then-candidate that he has “sacrificed nothing” and accused him of “smearing the character” of religious minorities like his family.
In the interview with Acosta on Wednesday, Khan, who has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, spoke of the nearing election in urgent terms.
“Trump has stated in public, by statements that … if he’s not elected, this will be end of democracy. So our democracy is under threat. Our founding values are under threat,” Khan said.
2 hr 16 min ago
Presidential race remains a toss-up with no clear leader, latest CNN Poll of Polls finds
From CNN's Ariel Edwards-Levy
An updated CNN Poll of Polls average of national polling, released Wednesday morning, continues to find no clear leader in the presidential race, with an average of 50% of likely voters supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and 48% backing former President Donald Trump.
The latest average includes a YouGov/Times of London/SAY24 poll that finds Harris taking 48% to Trump’s 45% among likely voters nationally, within the survey’s margin of sampling error.
A new Monmouth University poll — which is not included in the average because it does not ask a question directly testing the candidates against one another — finds that 48% of registered voters say they would “definitely” or “probably” vote for Harris, and 45% for Trump.
“Shifts of a single point can be consequential to the outcome but are beyond the ability of most polls to capture with any precision,” Monmouth polling director Patrick Murray wrote in the poll’s release. “The bottom line is this race is a toss-up and has been since August.”
2 hr 43 min ago
Tim Walz casts vote for Harris and himself in Minnesota
From CNN's Aaron Pellish
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz voted early in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, on Wednesday, casting his ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris and himself, a campaign official told CNN.
Walz voted in-person at the Ramsey County Elections office in St. Paul, along with his wife, Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz, and his son Gus — who recently turned 18 and voted for the first time today.
As Walz finished filling out his ballot, he walked over to Gus and spoke with him as he filled out his ballot. The two of them together submitted their ballots into the vote processing machine. As Gus submitted his ballot, a poll worker announced that Gus had voted for the first time, prompting cheers from others at the polling place.
The Walzes voted for Democrats down the ticket, a campaign official told CNN, including for Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Rep. Betty McCollum.
2 hr 7 min ago
Georgia’s secretary of state’s probe finds just 20 noncitizens registered to vote out of 8.2 million
From CNN's Sara Murray, Zachary Cohen, Jason Morris, and Nick Valencia
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a press conference in Atlanta on March 12.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger speaks during a press conference in Atlanta on March 12. Alyssa Pointer/Reuters
A review of the millions of registered voters in Georgia found just 20 noncitizens were registered to vote, Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Wednesday.
Those 20 people were removed from the state’s voter rolls – which total 8.2 million - and have been referred to local law enforcement, he said. “Georgia is a model when it comes to preventing noncitizen voting,” Raffensperger said, adding, “We need to remain constantly vigilant.”
Of the 20, nine had voted before and eleven had not, Raffensperger’s office said.
The findings underscore how rare it is for people who are not US citizens to register to vote. It’s illegal in federal elections and those who do register risk incarceration or deportation.
But former President Donald Trump and his conservative allies have latched onto the issue this election season, claiming it’s a widespread problem and that Democrats are relying on noncitizens to swing the election in their favor in November.
“There’s no proof that there is this overwhelming number of noncitizens on the rolls,” Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer in Georgia Secretary of State’s office said Wednesday. “Because, the reality is, if you’re a noncitizen and you’re a legal resident and you’re on a path to citizenship, if you try to register to vote, you will never get to be a citizen. It is very high risk, very low reward for one vote thing.”
Raffensperger said his office has opened case files on another 156 individuals whose citizenship status requires additional human investigation.
3 hr 11 min ago
Harris will attend volunteer appreciation event in Philadelphia ahead of CNN town hall, campaign says
From CNN's Ebony Davis
Vice President Kamala Harris will attend a volunteer appreciation event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ahead of tonight’s CNN’s town hall, according to a campaign official.
The event will take place at a local deli, which the campaign called a staple of its community. Since Harris launched her presidential bid, volunteers in Pennsylvania have knocked on more than one million doors to reach voters across the Commonwealth, the campaign said.
Harris is set to take questions from voters during CNN’s town hall hosted by Anderson Cooper at 9 p.m. ET. The campaign is hoping to win over the support of persuadable voters in the final sprint to Election Day.
Today marks Harris’ second visit to battleground Pennsylvania this week. On Monday, she participated in a moderated conversation alongside former Rep. Liz Cheney in the suburban area of Chester County.
2 hr 24 min ago
With the presidential race in its final stretch, it's a nail-biting time. Here are some ways to cope
From CNN's Sandee LaMotte
"I voted" stickers are seen during early voting on Wednesday, October 16, in Des Moines, Iowa.
"I voted" stickers are seen during early voting on Wednesday, October 16, in Des Moines, Iowa. Charlie Neibergall/AP
In an election year like few others, the race for the White House is down to a thinly stretched wire — not unlike the nerves of anxious voters unclear on how a divided country will respond to the winner.
“We are in a generally heightened state of stress caused by events around the world,” said neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson, founder and director of the nonprofit Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where research on Tibetan Buddhist practitioners found that meditation literally changed their brains.
Davidson also founded Healthy Minds Innovations, a nonprofit wellness organization that provides meditation and wellness guides on a free app. For the first time, wellness experts from Healthy Minds will be available live on election night, November 5, to provide meditation and stress busting tips, Davidson said in an email.
As the countdown to a new presidency unfolds, here are some expert-approved methods on how to handle anxiety and stress.
Get moving: Few things work as well as exercise for reducing stress, experts say. Physical activity promotes endorphins that boost mood while tired muscles lose their tension. An April 2024 study also found exercise is associated with a reduction in stress signals in the brain. At the same time, the study found that signals to the prefrontal cortex were rising. That’s the part of the brain responsible for the thinking and reasoning processes that help control reactions to stress.
Take control of your environment: First, recognize and then list what is truly in your control, what you can only influence and what is completely out of your control, suggested stress management expert Dr. Cynthia Ackrill, a former editor for Contentment magazine, produced by the American Institute of Stress. You also can control your activity on social media, which all too often triggers anger and despair, experts say.
Practice positives: To keep us safe, our brain has more wired for the negative, “so you have to really practice the positive,” Ackrill said. That means frequent doses of uplifting thoughts are needed to strengthen those positive neural connections. Still would be good to have a source. Here’s the good news: Studies of twins find only about 25% of our optimism is programmed by our genes. The rest is up to us and how we respond to life’s lemons (including election uncertainty).
Read more about ways to cope with election season stress.
3 hr 45 min ago
Trump campaign accuses UK’s governing party of election interference
From CNN's Rob Picheta
Donald Trump’s campaign has accused Britain’s governing party of “blatant foreign interference” in the US presidential election over a trip by its activists to help Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid, igniting a spat with one of Washington’s closest allies in the final stretches of the race.
A lawyer for the former president filed a complaint on Tuesday to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) against both the UK’s Labour Party and the Harris campaign, after a Labour staffer wrote a LinkedIn post advertising a trip to the US on which “nearly 100 Labour Party staff” members would campaign for Harris in four key swing states.
Under FEC rules, foreign nationals are allowed to campaign for a US electoral candidate, but only “as an uncompensated volunteer.”
The spat has the potential to sour relations between Trump and Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, who has worked to remain neutral on the upcoming election.
Starmer told reporters on Wednesday that any Labour Party staffers involved in the trip were there in a personal capacity.
“They’re doing it in their spare time, they’re doing it as volunteers, they’re staying, I think, with other volunteers over there,” Starmer said. “That’s what they’ve done in previous elections, that’s what they’re doing in this election and that’s really straightforward.”
But the Trump campaign elevated the dispute in heightened language on Wednesday. Its co-manager, Susie Wiles, said that “Americans will once again reject the oppression of big government that we rejected in 1776” and described the center-left Labour as a “far-left” party that has “inspired Kamala’s dangerously liberal policies.”
Keep in mind: The Trump campaign’s complaint does not contain any evidence that the individuals were compensated; instead it references the LinkedIn post and various media reporting, asking the FEC to investigate further.
Read the full story.
2 hr 26 min ago
Where things stand in the race as Harris faces town hall test with Pennsylvania voters tonight
From CNN's Terence Burlij
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris faces the latest high-profile moment in her condensed candidacy as she heads Wednesday to the biggest battleground prize on the 2024 map – Pennsylvania – to field questions from one of the most coveted groups in the election – undecided and persuadable voters.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump is set to return to the trail with a pair of events in Georgia – a faith town hall in Zebulon and a rally in Duluth hosted by Turning Point Action – as he seeks to flip the state and its 16 electoral votes back to his column in November.
Town hall test: The CNN town hall in Delaware County outside Philadelphia comes at a critical point in the presidential race with 13 days until Election Day, more than 20 million votes already cast and Harris locked in an exceedingly close race with her Republican rival. The event falls on the same night as a proposed CNN debate between the two candidates that Harris accepted but Trump turned down.
In the closing days of the campaign the vice president has sharpened her attacks against the GOP nominee by questioning his fitness for office, while also warning about the serious policy consequences of a second Trump term, with an emphasis on the issue of reproductive rights.
For Harris, Wednesday marks her 95th day as a presidential candidate – a reminder of the reduced timeline she has had to introduce herself to voters. Her aim Wednesday will be to continue working to give voters a better understanding of who she is personally and where she stands politically, while at the same time reminding movable voters about the reasons they remain resistant to the former president.
Sounding the alarm: The vice president is not alone in sounding the alarm about the potential danger of a second Trump presidency. Some of the loudest warnings are coming from those who worked in his administration, including John Kelly, who served as Trump’s White House chief of staff and Secretary of Homeland Security.
While Kelly had previously voiced concern about the former president, the decision to weigh in so forcefully in the final weeks of the election represented a stunning development. In an interview with the New York Times, Kelly said Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.”
The retired Marine general also recounted to The Atlantic an exchange where Kelly says Trump told him he wished US military personnel gave him the same deference that Adolf Hitler’s generals showed the Nazi dictator during World War II. A Trump campaign adviser denied Kelly’s claim, calling it “absolutely false.”
The Harris campaign quickly seized on the comments, with vice presidential nominee Tim Walz telling a crowd at a rally in Wisconsin that the episode proves Trump “is descending into madness.”
Focus on rhetoric: But it’s not just Trump’s reported comments from years ago that are drawing scrutiny in the final days of the election as the former president increasingly leans on inflammatory claims in media appearances and campaign events.
During an event Tuesday in Florida aimed at appealing to Latino voters, Trump attacked his Democratic rival with a racist trope, calling the vice president “lazy as hell” as he criticized her for not holding any public campaign events. Harris participated in a pair of television interviews Tuesday, a day after holding separate campaign events in each of the Blue Wall states.
The former president also told those gathered at his Doral golf resort that presidents “have extreme power” to be able to address immigration.
2 hr 31 min ago
Liz Cheney endorses Democrat Elissa Slotkin in Michigan Senate race
From CNN's Ali Main
Rep. Elissa Slotkin speaks on October 18 in Detroit.
Rep. Elissa Slotkin speaks on October 18 in Detroit. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Rep. Elissa Slotkin is touting former Rep. Liz Cheney’s endorsement of her Senate bid in Michigan, just after the former Republican congresswoman visited the state to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris.
Slotkin is running against former Republican congressman Mike Rogers in a highly competitive race for retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s seat.
Slotkin notes that she was the first Democrat that Cheney endorsed during her 2022 congressional race against Tom Barrett, who’s running now to occupy the seat Slotkin is vacating.
3 hr 56 min ago
Obama urges young men to vote on NBA podcast, says “it’s not that hard to vote”
From CNN's Andrew Millman
Former President Barack Obama speaks at a rally on October 22 in Madison, Wisconsin.
Former President Barack Obama speaks at a rally on October 22 in Madison, Wisconsin. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Former President Barack Obama appeared on “The Young Man & the Three,” a basketball-focused podcast hosted by Indiana Pacers player Tyrese Haliburton, to encourage young people—particularly young men—to vote, saying “that’s the main message I have for folks. It’s not that hard to vote.”
“Sometimes I think a lot of young people, a lot of young men, they get frustrated and they say well, nothing’s happened. Let’s say when I was president, I didn’t cure racism, I didn’t eliminate poverty, but 50 million people got health insurance that didn’t have it before and that’s saved people’s lives and made people’s lives better,” former President Obama argued, also pointing to the Biden-Harris administration’s efforts to lower the costs of prescription drugs.
Obama argued against “the idea that we wouldn’t just spend half an hour to vote,” before directly addressing young people, saying “you’re going to let a bunch of old people decide your future? You wouldn’t do that about your music, you wouldn’t do that about your clothes, but you’re going to let them decide what your future, your potential careers, what the environment’s going to look like, you’re going to let them decide that and you’re just going to opt out? That just doesn’t make any sense.”
“I don’t think it’s any secret that I think Donald Trump is not somebody who is going to work hard on behalf of ordinary people. I think his agenda is basically about himself, his status, his ego,” Obama said about his successor in the Oval Office.
“We’re at one of these moments where we’ve got to kind of decide who we are as a country and what Kamala represents, what I tried to represent when I was president, is the belief that everybody in the country should have a fair shot, that we have some mutual obligations towards each other and that we’re part of a community, an American family,” he said, also pointing to the Affordable Care Act and health care initiatives in the Biden-Harris administration.
5 hr 5 min ago
Pro-Trump advertisers spent more than $20 million replaying Harris’ answer on "The View"
From CNN's David Wright
The Trump campaign and a top allied super PAC both launched new TV ads this morning, first airing in battleground Pennsylvania, highlighting comments from Vice President Kamala Harris on “The View” earlier this month that have become a major focus of GOP attacks.
On “The View,” Harris was asked by host Sunny Hostin, “Would you have done something differently than President Biden?,” and Harris responded, “There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of – and I’ve been a part of most of the decisions.”
Harris’ answer was quickly seized on by GOP critics, eager to exploit the link between the vice president and outgoing President Joe Biden, with his approval rating stuck underwater. The Trump campaign launched its first ad featuring the clip on Oct. 16, and has since spent more than $13 million airing that spot.
And according to AdImpact data, Republican advertisers in the presidential race have spent more than $20 million so far this month airing broadcast TV ads replaying Harris’ answer, which has emerged as a key point of attack in the White House race’s closing sprint.
2 hr 27 min ago
What the Harris campaign is focusing on in final 2 weeks until Election Day
From CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a rally on October 17 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a rally on October 17 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Scott Olson/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is trying to get Americans to see a second a second Donald Trump presidency as taking the country further off track and to view Harris as an acceptable agent of change in the final sprint to Election Day, a dozen top aides and outside allies told CNN.
As Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told top donors in Philadelphia during a retreat last week, they may not believe that the race could still be tied, but in the battleground states where the presidency will be won, it is.
Some of the outreach will include reviving Biden-style themes around Trump’s unfitness for office, trying to make the argument for a stable commander in chief while convincing wavering voters to make the leap toward electing the first Black female president.
But rather than moralistic and abstract messaging, Harris and her ads will focus on how much worse they believe a second Trump presidency would be. And in a way Biden never could, this would include more hammering of Trump as unfit for the presidency, specifically because of their claims that he is in mental and physical decline.
Reproductive rights will remain central, but the outreach will also keep pressing Harris’ biography and economic plans, convinced her campaign has real room to grow with non-college-educated White women repelled by Trump, who aides believe she can win if they feel she’s more middle class than radical left.
The team also expects to build on its efforts among seniors and maximize the enthusiasm for Harris among Black women, while pushing to grow support among Black men and Latinos.
3 hr 46 min ago
Trump's popularity is growing with union workers, a trend Democrats are trying to counter
From CNN's Sarah Ferris
US Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania speaks to UAW Local 677 members on October 20, 2024, in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
US Democratic Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania speaks to UAW Local 677 members on October 20 in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Wild holds a critical swing seat that could determine control of the House this cycle. Sarah Ferris/CNN
Bushy-bearded United Auto Workers leader Dan Vicente has watched first-hand as his fellow union workers have drifted away from the Democratic Party here in Pennsylvania.
He was almost one of them.
The plain-spoken UAW Region 9 director told a bustling hall on Sunday that he nearly voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Now, two elections later, Vicente said he’s still “not super into” either party but is backing Kamala Harris because she “at least comes from the working class.”
But he worries that Trump is still the one breaking through in many union shops like his.
“Let’s be real, a huge number of our unionized members are going to vote for Trump,” Vicente told CNN at the pro-Democrat rally. “The national Dems have a real problem with messaging to regular working people. You can give all the policy speeches you want. Nobody’s listening.”
The labor leader’s warning is yet another alarm bell for Democrats about their clout with labor nationally, which has been slipping for decades, according to interviews with more than a dozen union workers and local Democrats. Trump’s strength in places like eastern Pennsylvania have made it a far more urgent problem for Harris, whose ability to win the White House could come down to a few thousand votes here in the state.
Read more about the challenge Democrats face in courting union workers.
4 hr 32 min ago
Analysis: Democrats seize on new suggestions of Trump’s extremism in campaign's final sprint to Election Day
From CNN's Stephen Collinson
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and former President Donald Trump.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and former President Donald Trump. Getty Images
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz accused Donald Trump of descending into “madness” on Tuesday, following a report that the former president pined for the loyalty of the “kind of generals that Hitler had.”
Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate seized on the report in The Atlantic as top party figures warned of dark days ahead if Trump wins the presidency in 13 days given his often-expressed autocratic instincts.
A tense atmosphere around a neck-and-neck election ratcheted up significantly following the article by Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg that said Trump had noted in a private conversation while president: “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.” The report was substantiated in the article by Trump’s former White House chief of staff John Kelly. Trump’s alleged fixation with Hitler was also supported by material in several books, including one by CNN’s Jim Sciutto.
In a separate interview with The New York Times, Kelly said Trump fit the definition of a fascist.
During a rally in Wisconsin, Walz capitalized on new suggestions of Trump’s extremism on a day when other senior Democratic figures raised what they see as the dire specter of an unchained Trump second term as they try to rally support for Harris.
“Don’t be the frog in the boiling water and think this is okay,” the Minnesota governor, who served in the Army National Guard, said, referring to the revelations in The Atlantic.
“Folks, the guardrails are gone. Trump is descending into this madness. A former president of the United States and the candidate for president of the United States says he wants generals like Adolf Hitler had. Think about it.”
Read the full analysis.
5 hr 23 min ago
Harris will take questions from Pennsylvania voters at CNN town hall tonight
From CNN staff
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a town hall on October 21 in Royal Oak, Michigan.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a town hall on October 21 in Royal Oak, Michigan. Sarah Rice/Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris will take questions at a CNN presidential town hall tonight at 9 p.m. ET in the pivotal battleground state of Pennsylvania.
The event, which will be moderated by Anderson Cooper, will take place outside of Philadelphia and feature an audience of undecided and persuadable voters.
It comes as the vice president is working to make her final pitch to voters with less than two weeks to go until Election Day — especially to voters in battleground states who have not yet made up their mind.
CNN also invited former President Donald Trump to participate in a town hall, but he declined.
“(Donald) Trump may want to hide from the voters, but Vice President Harris welcomes the opportunity to share her vision for a New Way Forward for the country. She is happy to accept CNN’s invitation for a live, televised town hall on October 23 in Pennsylvania,” Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said previously in a statement.
The network previously proposed a debate between Harris and Trump in Atlanta on October 23. Harris quickly accepted the invite, but Trump repeatedly shrugged it off, despite the Harris campaign’s attempts to goad him into participating.
CNN’s Brian Stelter contributed reporting to this post.
5 hr 39 min ago
Here's where the candidates will be today
From CNN staff
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Mark Schiefelbein/AP
There are less than two weeks until Election Day, and the candidates are hitting battleground states as they try to get voters to the polls.
Former President Donald Trump will be in Georgia on Wednesday, while Vice President Kamala Harris heads to Pennsylvania for a CNN town hall tonight.
Here’s a rundown of today’s campaign events:
Harris: CNN will moderate a live CNN presidential town hall with the vice president on Wednesday from Delaware County, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia. The town hall will be moderated by Anderson Cooper and begin at 9 p.m. ET.
Harris will take questions from undecided an persuadable voters in the audience. It comes as Harris is working to continue to make her case to the American people as early voting is already underway in many states.
Tim Walz will join an interview with Univision Radio before travelling to Louisville, Kentucky for a fundraiser.
Trump: The former president will deliver keynote remarks at a “Georgia for Trump” rally in Duluth on Wednesday. The event is hosted by Turning Point PAC and Turning Point Action.
JD Vance will be in Nevada to speak in Las Vegas and Reno.
Meanwhile, former President Bill Clinton will hold a campaign event in Phoenix, Arizona, where he will encourage Arizonans to vote for the Harris-Walz ticket.
Clinton has been campaigning in battleground states for Harris, as has former President Barack Obama.
7 hr 1 min ago
In maps and charts: Tracking early voting trends by party, age and race
From CNN's Curt Merrill, Matt Stiles, Ethan Cohen and John Murphy-Teixidor
With 14 days to go before Election Day, more than 20.2 million Americans have already cast their ballots in the November election, either by mail or through early in-person voting, getting a head start on shaping the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
CNN is monitoring who is casting pre-election ballots in the 36 states that offer early voting, as well as how early voting numbers compare with four years ago, when pre-election voting reached historic levels during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Democrats held a wide advantage over Republicans in early voting four years ago, but the gap could be narrower this time as top Republican officials urge supporters to embrace voting before Election Day on November 5.
Here are the pre-election voting breakdowns, by party preference, in key battleground states where registration information is available:
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