With less than 40 days left until November’s election, former President Donald Trump continues to escalate his personal attacks against Kamala Harris, calling for the vice president to be “impeached and prosecuted.”

Throughout his campaign rally speech in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, Trump said Harris should be disqualified from running for president, resign from office and be investigated at the highest level.

“She should be disqualified. She should resign the vice presidency and go home to California,” Trump told the cheering crowd while discussing the “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Thirty people have been confirmed dead after Tropical Storm Helene ripped through Buncombe County, North Carolina, Sheriff Quentin Miller said early Sunday evening.

“We’re still conducting search operations, and we know that those also may include recovery operations,” he said at a news conference.

The county remains under a state of emergency, with officials saying they are working hard to help those impacted by Helene, which hit Florida’s Big Bend as a Category 4 hurricane before moving up through Georgia and the Carolinas as a tropical storm.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Harris reiterated her support for Ukraine in remarks at the White House after her meeting with Zelenskyy, telling reporters, “I’ve been proud to stand with Ukraine, I’ll continue to stand with Ukraine, and I will work to ensure Ukraine prevails in this war.”

Harris framed Ukraine’s fight against Russia as reflecting American values, saying: “The American people know well the meaning of freedom, of independence and the importance of rule of law. These ideals are central to who we are as Americans, and some of the most important moments in our history have come when we stood up to aggressors like Putin.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to the White House on Thursday could be his final chance to convince a receptive American president of his country’s war aims.

The precise details of the “victory plan” Zelensky plans to present in separate meetings to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are unknown, having been closely held until they are presented to the American leaders.

But according to people briefed on its broad contours, the plan reflects the Ukrainian leader’s urgent appeals for more immediate help countering Russia’s invasion. Zelensky is also poised to push for long-term security guarantees that could withstand changes in American leadership ahead of what is widely expected to be a close presidential election between Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted by a federal grand jury, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

In a speech addressed to New Yorkers on Wednesday, Adams vowed to fight what he called the “entirely false” indictment with “every ounce of my strength and my spirit.”

“I always knew that If I stood my ground for all of you that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams said.

Adams is the city’s first sitting mayor to be indicted.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Prosecutors on Tuesday filed the charge of attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate against Ryan Wesley Routh, the man they say camped outside of Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course for hours on end, armed with a rifle that he pointed through a chain-link fence with a clear shot to the next hole where the former president was headed on September 15.

Routh, allegedly “stalked” Trump in Florida for more than a month, prosecutors told a federal magistrate judge on Monday, with cell phone data allegedly placing Routh at the golf course as well as Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence across several days between August 18 and the day Routh was arrested.

Routh was originally charged with two gun-related offenses, including obliteration of a firearm’s serial number and possessing a firearm while a convicted felon, while the investigation continued.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are pushing back against efforts by federal prosecutors to streamline arguments and potential appeals in his 2020 election interference case, arguing they could improperly influence the 2024 race for the White House.

In papers filed Monday in federal court in Washington, defense attorneys contended that special counsel Jack Smith’s plans to file an oversized brief about whether certain Trump actions from his presidency were official or unofficial acts is improper and should not be allowed.

“Departures from these practices should never be countenanced because they risk allowing prosecutors to impact national elections, but the situation is even worse here where the Special Counsel’s Office is seeking to do so by turning criminal procedure on its head in order to file a 180-page false hit piece,” Trump’s lawyers argued.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance laid into the media for “debunking a story that comes from the residents of Springfield” on Monday, and urged journalists to listen “to people speak their truth,” after he was criticized for promoting unfounded allegations about Haitian migrants eating pets in Ohio.

“I wish the American media was half as interested in the stress on the local schools, the stress on the hospitals, and unaffordable housing as they are in debunking a story that comes from the residents of Springfield,” said Vance at a campaign rally in North Carolina, Monday.

He then questioned, “Did you ever think about listening to people speak their truth instead of listening to some bureaucrat and assuming that everything they tell you is true?”

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

House Republicans on Wednesday defeated their own plan to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month, with the party divided over the length of a short-term funding bill and what, if anything, should be attached to it.

It was an embarrassing blow to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who had yanked the same funding package off the floor last week amid growing GOP defections, only to watch it collapse on Wednesday in a vote that seemed doomed from the start.

The vote was 202-220 with two members voting present. In all, fourteen Republicans voted against the package, and three Democrats — Reps. Jared Golden of Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Don Davis of North Carolina — voted for it.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The Federal Reserve said Wednesday it was lowering its key interest rate by half a percentage point, an unusually aggressive move designed to cushion the economy from a further slowdown.

The central bank noted job gains had slowed while inflation had made further progress toward its 2% goal.

At a follow-up news conference, Fed Chair Jay Powell said the labor market and the economy in general remain in “solid shape.”

By making the larger cut, he said, “our intention is to keep it there.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

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Sean “Diddy” Combs, the spotlight-adoring music impresario who helped launch the careers of some of the biggest names in hip-hop and R&B, was denied bail and sent to jail Tuesday after being accused in a three-count federal indictment of having used his sprawling business empire to abuse, threaten and traffic women in order to “fulfill his sexual desires” and protect his reputation.

Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York accuse Combs of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution in the indictment unsealed Tuesday.

It accuses Combs, 54, along with members of his security and household staff, personal assistants and other associates in his businesses, of “creating a criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The militant group Hezbollah said Tuesday that pagers belonging to its members had blown up across Lebanon, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 2,750, according to the country’s Health Ministry.

Iran-backed Hezbollah pinned the blame for the widespread and simultaneous blasts on Israel, without providing evidence. Israel did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the accusations and the explosions.

More than 200 people were in critical condition, the public health minister, Dr. Firas Abiad, told reporters. According to The Associated Press and Al Jazeera, officials updated the death toll after Abiad’s news conference.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) defended pushing the baseless smear of Haitian migrants eating household pets in Springfield, OH — a claim which has been widely debunked.

In a shocking 16-minute interview on CNN Sunday, the Ohio senator was called out by CNN’s Dana Bash for peddling the claims.

“Before Donald Trump talked about eating dogs and cats on a debate stage, it was you, Senator, who first elevated this baseless rumor,” Bash said. “These are your constituents. So why are you putting them at risk by continuing to spread claims about Haitian immigrants, despite officials in your state saying that there’s no evidence and pleading for you to stop?”

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Former President Donald Trump is getting pilloried for ramping up his attackson Taylor Swift — following the pop mega-star’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.

In a Sunday morning post to his Truth Social platform, the former president declared in all-caps “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”

The post drew mockery and condemnation — with a common reaction being a reference to a popular Swift song title.

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Sunday decried former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating dogs and other pets as “garbage” but stopped short of directly condemning Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, for spreading the false claims.

“There’s a lot of garbage on the internet. You know, this is a piece of garbage that was simply not true. There’s no evidence of this at all,” DeWine said in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” when he was asked whether it’s responsible for Trump to push the false claims.

Asked what he would say to Trump after he pointed out that there is no truth to his claims, DeWine condemned groups that have marched in Springfield as part of a hate campaign against Haitian immigrants and went on to praise Haitians as hard-working people who have brought “positive influences” to the town.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Riding high on momentum two days after the presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris was greeted by a deafening crowd here Thursday, eager to see the Democratic nominee push to the next phase of her campaign.

Harris told supporters it was time to turn the page from Donald Trump while again challenging the former president to a second debate, which she did earlier in the day at her rally in Charlotte.

“We owe it to the voters. Because here’s the thing: In this election, what’s at stake could not be more important,” she said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Vice President Kamala Harris raised $47 million in the first 24 hours following her debate with former President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday night, a sum that will likely expand a widening funding gap between the two campaigns.

That tally, shared by the Harris campaign with The New York Times, included donations from 600,000 people. It is her largest 24-hour fund-raising period since an initial burst of donations when she entered the race in July and raised $81 million on the first day.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Barely an hour before the presidential debate the father of an 11-year-old Ohio boy killed when an immigrant’s minivan crashed into a school bus lashed out at Donald J. Trump and his running mate, JD Vance.

Speaking during public comment at a regular meeting of the Springfield City Commission, the father, Nathan Clark, called them “morally bankrupt” politicians spreading hate at the expense of his son, Aiden. Mr. Clark said, “This needs to stop now.”

The death of Aiden Clark, who was thrown from the bus after the minivan driver, who is Haitian, veered into oncoming traffic just over a year ago, shook residents of Springfield, a blue-collar town between Dayton and Columbus. And it touched off a wave of angry rhetoric over the thousands of immigrants from Haiti who have settled in the area since the pandemic.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Longtime Republican pollster Frank Luntz said the presidential election is basically over after Vice President Kamala Harris drubbed Donald Trump at Tuesday night’s debate.
“I’m trying to decide if I want to go on record and the answer is yes,” he told Piers Morgan on Wednesday. “I think that he loses because of this debate performance.”

He added:

“This is not the worst debate performance I’ve seen in my career, but it’s very close to it. The conversations about people eating dogs and cats, calling the leader of Hungary one of the greatest world leaders, repeatedly missing the opportunity to focus on inflation and affordability, and the complete inability to present his point of view without completely tearing into her, into Joe Biden, into whomever was in his sights. It was a pretty negative performance. Pretty pessimistic. Cynical. Contemptuous. And I think that this will cost him.”

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president may boost voter registration beyond Democrats’ “wildest dreams.“

The General Services Administration, which oversees the website, confirmed to NBC News that as of 2 p.m. ET Wednesday, 337,826 people had visited a custom URL that Swift posted on Instagram when she announced she was endorsing Harris.

The custom URL directs people to vote.gov, a website that helps visitors register to vote in their states. The site also breaks down Americans’ voting rights, explains election processes and provides a road map to frequently asked questions.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Pop superstar Taylor Swift endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential candidacy on Tuesday night after the high-stakes debatewith former President Donald Trump, calling the Democratic nominee a “steady-handed, gifted leader.”

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election,” Swift said in a post on Instagram to her more than 283 million followers. “I’m voting for @kamalaharris  because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

Swift went on to say that she was “heartened and impressed” by Harris’ selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, praising him as a champion of “LGBTQ+ rights, IVF and a woman’s right to own her body for decades.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

It began just as they appeared before the audience.

Vice President Kamala Harris walked across the stage into former President Donald Trump’s space, reached out her hand and introduced herself.

Trump, visibly taken aback, shook her hand.

The assertive move by Harris was one that ended up setting the tone for the next 90 minutes, where Harris made her case to become the nation’s next president as much through body language as she did through words.

And in that period, she repeatedly got under Trump’s skin, sending him into angry screeds where he struggled to stay on topic and, at times, careened into confounding anecdotes.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump clashed in their first presidential debate Tuesday in Philadelphia, less than two months before Election Day.

Heading into the debate, Harris appeared to have more to gain — and more to lose. A New York Times/Siena College poll found that 28% said they “need to learn more about Kamala Harris,” compared with just 9% who said the same about Trump. Overall, Trump led Harris by 1 point among likely voters, with 5% unsure or not backing either.

The debate covered a wide range of issues and featured a series of intense exchanges between the two bitter rivals. Harris presented herself as a pragmatic problem-solver and diminished Trump as a wannabe dictator who can’t keep his rally crowds engaged. Trump attacked Harris as a radical and frequently returned to his theme of criticizing migration, sometimes veering into conspiracy theories.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Legendary actor James Earl Jones, best known for his innumerable movie roles and the booming voice of the character of Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” franchise, has died, his representative confirmed to ABC News.

He was 93 years old.

Jones died on Monday morning at his home in Dutchess County, New York, surrounded by his family, according to longtime agent Barry McPherson.

The thespian, whose powerful, deep voice brought to life the iconic villain of Darth Vader, acted for more than six decades and won three Tony Awards, including a lifetime honor in 2017, two Emmys and a Grammy. He was recognized for lifetime achievement by the Academy Awards in 2011.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Police in Springfield, Ohio, said Monday they had received no credible reports of immigrants harming pets, contradicting a claim by Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance. 

The senator from Ohio, as well as other Republican lawmakers and several conservative commentators, have in recent days asserted without evidence that the arrival of thousands of immigrants from Haiti had created chaos in Springfield. 

In a post on X, Vance wrote Monday that “people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.” 

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Over the past two weeks, former President Donald Trump has become increasingly explicit in describing plans to use the Department of Justice to prosecute scores of people he has declared corrupt, if he wins in November. 

Legal experts said Trump will face obstacles. Judges, prosecutors and juries, for example, could decline to try or convict people if there is scant evidence they committed a crime.

But the experts also said the Supreme Court’s recent immunity decision gives a president the power to order the attorney general to indict any individuals they wish without facing legal consequences themselves.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to face off in their first debate of the 2024 election tomorrow night, moderated by ABC News.

With only weeks until Election Day, the debate is a crucial opportunity for both candidates to work to sway undecided voters in what’s expected to be a close contest.

The debate is a chance for Harris — who became the Democratic candidate after President Joe Biden left the race following his lackluster June debate performance — and Trump to explain their policies on key issues. It’s the first time the pair will meet in person.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

A new poll from The New York Times and Siena College that surveyed likely voters indicates the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is nearly evenly matched. While there is a margin of error of 3 percentage points, Trump is ahead of Harris in a 48% to 47% lead.

The figures are similar to the Times and Siena College’s July poll, which followed President Joe Biden dropping out of the race and Harris announcing her presidential campaign.

In the seven battleground states — Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina and Arizona — Harris is slightly leading or tied with Trump, according to the latest poll.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on Sunday called Vice President Kamala Harris’ decision to moderate her views on fracking and “Medicare for All” “pragmatic,” saying that Harris is “doing what she thinks is right in order to win the election” and that he still considers her to be “progressive.”

Still, Sanders added that Harris has a path to victory by campaigning on other progressive positions, like raising the minimum wage, raising taxes on the wealthy and increasing Social Security benefits.

“I think if you campaign on those issues — raising taxes on billionaires — you know what, she’s going to win, and I think she could win big,” said Sanders, who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and 2020.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

A federal judge declared at a court hearing on Thursday that she would not let former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign for the White House affect the schedule of the criminal case in which he stands accused of plotting to overturn the 2020 election.

Hours later, the judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, fulfilled that vow by setting a schedule for the matter that moved speedily ahead and opened the possibility that prosecutors could make public more of the evidence they hope to use against Mr. Trump at trial in a court filing before Election Day.

Judge Chutkan established a series of deadlines for filings from both sides to assess the impact of several legal issues on the case, including the Supreme Court’s recent ruling granting Mr. Trump some immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions he took as president.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz used some of his sharpest language on the campaign trail Thursday in remarks going after both former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.

Speaking at a rally in Erie, Pa., Walz borrowed a line from Josh Shapiro, the state’s Democratic governor by saying that “whenever Donald Trump’s talking about America, he’s s— talking America.”

Shapiro has said numerous times that Trump is “s— talking” the country, which Walz acknowledged when he paraphrased the Pennsylvania governor.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty Thursday to all the charges in the federal tax case against him, a surprise move that avoids a potentially embarrassing trial for President Joe Biden‘s son.

The sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 16.

“Hunter put his family first today. And it was a brave and loving thing to do,” his attorney Abbe Lowell told reporters afterwards, saying the plea prevented a “show trial.”

Biden did not speak to reporters, but issued a statement blasting prosecutors from special counsel David Weiss’ office who he said were “focused not on justice but on dehumanizing me for my actions during my addiction.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., on Wednesday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, the latest high-profile Republican endorsement for Democrats.

Cheney’s comments took place during an appearance at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

“Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris,” Cheney said in a video of remarks posted to X. The university separately provided a clip of Cheney’s remarks to NBC News.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trumpare set to debate each other next week for the first time after their campaigns on Wednesday agreed to the ground rules set by host network ABC.

The Sept. 10 event in Philadelphia will use the same rules and formatas the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

Both campaigns had previously agreed to hold the debate on that date, but the agreement appeared to be in jeopardy after Trump suggested he might back out and Harris’ team sought to change the rule on muted microphones.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Employees of the Russia-backed media network RT funded and directed a scheme that sent millions of dollars to prominent right-wing commentators through a media company that appears to match the description of Tenet Media, a leading platform for pro-Trump voices, according to an NBC News review of charging documents, business records and social media profiles.

The indictment on Wednesday of two RT employees, Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, includes allegations that the duo implemented a nearly $10 million plan to fund an unnamed Tennessee-based company as one of their “covert projects” to influence American politics by posting videos to TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

In an interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, Trump spewed some of his usual rhetoric about the 2020 election and Project 2025.

“I think the fraud was on the other side. I think the election was a fraud,” Trump told Fridman, referring to the 2020 election. “And many people felt it was that and they wanted answers. And when you can’t challenge an election, you have to be able to challenge it, otherwise it’s going to get worse, not better.”

Trump, who also falsely claimed that there is a trend of noncitizens voting, is currently facing an indictment related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Read the rest of the story at HuffPost

President Joe Biden on Monday said he did not think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had done enough to secure a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, a comment that comes amid massive protests in Israel.  

Biden made the remark to reporters after a weekend during which the bodies of six hostages executed by Hamas were found in a Gaza tunnel. Among those discovered was the body of 23-year-old American Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents had publicly pleaded for the return of their son. The pair had brought their personal appeal to the Democratic National Convention, where they were received with a standing ovation.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Two words sum up the national and battleground state polls released ahead of Labor Day weekend, with fewer than 10 weeks to go until Election Day: changed and close.

Changed, because most of the surveys — conducted after President Joe Biden’s exit from the 2024 race, after the Democratic convention, and after independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed former President Donald Trump — show Vice President Kamala Harris with narrow leads nationally and in key battlegrounds. 

That’s compared with polling that mostly showed Trump with a narrow edge before Biden’s departure. 

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Gold Star families did not invite President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to Arlington National Cemetery by last week to commemorate the third anniversary of the attack at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan, a White House official and a Harris aide told NBC News, rebutting separate claims made Sunday by GOP Sen. Tom Cotton and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

The two were speaking about former President Donald Trump’s visit last week to Arlington National Cemetery, where he has drawn criticism for posing for photos with Gold Star families in a section of the cemetery where photos are traditionally prohibited.

Last week, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Trump’s visit was a “personal invitation by families.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Former President Donald Trump is seeking to delay the upcoming sentencing in his New York hush money case by again asking a federal court in New York to take up the case in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.

In a 60-page filing Thursday, Trump’s lawyers urged the court to reconsider his argument to remove the case from state court to federal court ahead of the former president’s Sept. 18 sentencing.

“The ongoing proceedings will continue to cause direct and irreparable harm to President Trump — the leading candidate in the 2024 Presidential election — and voters located far beyond Manhattan,” defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in the filing.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Former President Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Thursday that if he is elected, his administration would not only protect access to in-vitro fertilization but would also have either the government or insurance companies cover the cost of the expensive service for American women who need it.

“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump said before adding, “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

Asked to clarify whether the government would pay for IVF services or whether insurance companies would do so, Trump reiterated that one option would be to have insurance companies pay “under a mandate, yes.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Vice President Kamala Harris has closed the gap in several critical swing states just over a month into her campaign, according to recent polling by Fox News.

The network released new surveys on Wednesday comparing Harris’ support in four battleground states to President Joe Biden‘s polling numbers prior to him suspending his reelection campaign in late July. The results found that Harris is locked in a tight race with former President Donald Trump in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina—states where Biden once trailed the GOP presidential nominee by at least 5 points each.

In Arizona, where Harris currently leads Trump by 1 point (50 percent to 49 percent), Biden was down by 5 percentage points in a Fox News poll in June. Harris also leads Trump in Georgia and Nevada by 2 percentage points (50 percent to 48 percent). Biden, on the other hand, was trailing the former president by 6 points in Georgia back in April and by 5 points in Nevada in June.

Read the rest of the story at Newsweek

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to soon face her first post-convention test when she sits for a formal interview airing in primetime on Thursday.

CNN announced Tuesday that Harris and her running mate Gov. Tim Walz will be interviewed by anchor Dana Bash, marking the first sitdown with a reporter since President Joe Biden bowed out of the race.

The interview, airing at 9 p.m. ET, comes as Harris and Walz take a campaign bus tour of battleground Georgia and as she faced growing calls from the Trump campaign and reporters to agree to an extended questioning.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced on Truth Social that he has “reached an agreement” to participate in a September 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, noting that “the rules will be the same as the last CNN debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone.”

The rules will largely mirror the terms used by CNN for its June 27 debate, including that microphones will be muted as the other candidate speaks and no studio audience will be present, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN.

Still, the Harris campaign maintains that discussions are ongoing with ABC over whether microphones will remain on during September’s presidential debate, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

Vice President Kamala Harris will embark on a two-day Georgia swing on Wednesday, and analysts say it’s wise to strike in the Southern swing state while she has momentum.

The Democratic presidential nominee is coming off what even some Republicans say was a successful national convention, with Donald Trump campaign aides contending any polling spike she gets this week is merely a political sugar high that will fade.

But Harris and her team have made clear they believe the Peach State, won by President Joe Biden in 2020, is in play again.

Read the rest of the story at Roll Call

A federal judge in Texas on Monday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from granting legal status to unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens, granting a request from 16 Republican-led states who challenged the new policy.

The order by District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker effectively brings to a halt a large immigration program that opened just last week to an estimated half a million immigrants living in the U.S. without legal status. While preliminary and temporary, the ruling is also an early blow to one of the two major moves taken by President Biden in June on immigration, a top campaign issue in the 2024 race for president.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Federal prosecutors asked an appeals court Monday to restore Donald Trump’s classified documents case, pushing back on the former president‘s claims that Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the Constitution.

“The Attorney General validly appointed the Special Counsel, who is also properly funded,” Assistant Special Counsel James Pearce, a member of Smith’s team, wrote in a brief filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “In ruling otherwise, the district court deviated from binding Supreme Court precedent, misconstrued the statutes that authorized the Special Counsel’s appointment, and took inadequate account of the longstanding history of Attorney General appointments of special counsels.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

What to know about the exchange of fire between Israel and Hezbollah

• Israel and the Hezbollah militant group launched their heaviest exchange of fire after months of strikes and counterstrikes. By mid-morning Sunday, it appeared to have ended, with both sides saying they only aimed at military targets.
• Authorities in Lebanon said the Israeli strikes killed three people, while Israel said one of its soldiers was killed.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Five people have been charged in connection with the ketamine death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry, federal officials in Los Angeles announced Thursday.

Three of the defendants, including a doctor and the actor’s assistant, are in plea agreements for federal drug charges in connection with this death, while two others — including a second doctor and a woman reportedly known as “The Ketamine Queen” who is accused of selling Perry the batch of ketamine that killed him, were arrested on Thursday, according to the Department of Justice.

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said investigators conducted a wide-ranging investigation following Perry’s death in October 2023 that “revealed a broad, underground criminal network responsible for distributing large quantities of ketamine to Mr. Perry and others.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

At a news conference Thursday afternoon at his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey — his second in a week – former President Donald Trump said he’s “entitled” to insult his Democratic opponent — Vice President Kamala Harris — because he doesn’t respect her.

“I think I am entitled to personal attacks. I do not have a lot of respect for her. I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she’ll be a terrible president. And I think it is very important that we win. And whether the personal attacks are good, bad – I mean, she certainly attacks me personally. She actually called me weird. ‘He’s weird,'” he said.

“She’s not — she’s not smart. I don’t believe she loves our country,” he added.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris held their first joint event since Biden exited the 2024 race and endorsed her to take his place atop the Democratic ticket.

The two walked out together to cheers to deliver remarks on stage at Prince George’s County Community College in Maryland about the economy and what their administration has done to alleviate costs for Americans.

That includes the administration’s announcement earlier Thursday that the Department of Health and Human Services reached an agreement on price negotiations for 10 commonly used drugs that they say will save Medicare enrollees $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs when the new prices go into effect in 2026.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Trump is in North Carolina to deliver remarks on the economy, but his speech so far has not revealed any new or detailed policy positions and instead is focused on bashing Harris on inflation and immigration.

“With four more years of Harris, your finances will never recover, they’re never going to recover. Our country will never recover, frankly, more importantly. It will be unrecoverable,” he said. “Vote Trump, and your incomes will soar, your savings will grow, young people will be able to afford a home and we will bring back the American dream bigger, better and stronger than ever before.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

The Republican Vice Presidential nominee, JD Vance, generally doesn’t want people to know that when he served in the US Marine Corps as a journalist (called a Combat Correspondent) deployed to Iraq, his name was not JD Vance.  He was Corporal James D. Hamel.  Corporal Hamel was assigned in the relatively safe, air-conditioned spaces on an al-Assad airbase in Western Iraq, where he put out press releases for the 2^ndMarine Air Wing for a year.  There was danger. Every US base was rocketed, and the roads were dicing with death, but writing press releases for The Eagle and Crescent base newspaper was his daily job.  At the end of four years, he got out without any distinguishing award or the coveted Combat Action Ribbon.  No matter, he served honorably. But his attack this week on retired Master Sargent Tim Walz, the homey beloved governor of Minnesota, went about twenty steps too far. 

Read the rest of Malcolm Nance’s piece at and subscribe to his Substack

Vice President Kamala Harris is set to deliver a speech Friday to roll out her economic portfolio in Raleigh, North Carolina, marking the first time Harris has released a major policy initiative since President Biden dropped out of the race last month. 

Harris is expected to announce that she will make tackling inflation a “Day One” priority, as well as outline a plan to lower costs for middle class families, take on corporate-price gouging and an overall focus on lowering costs for Americans, according to details shared by Harris-Walz campaign officials. 

According to the most recent CBS News poll, only 9% of registered voters rated the condition of the national economy as ‘very good’ with the economy and inflation ranking as the top issue of concern consistently across 2024 polls. Inflation has cooled since its peak in June 2022, but many voters are still feeling the financial strains. Prices are still 20% higher overall than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News 

The United Auto Workers Union has filed federal labor charges against former President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the union said Tuesday.

In a thread on X, the union said Trump and Musk had illegally attempted to “threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted activity, such as strikes.”

Musk — who has endorsed Trump for president — interviewed him for two hours Monday night on X Spaces in a conversation that reached over 1 million users.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., fended off several primary challengersTuesday, NBC News projects, a victory for progressives after two of her fellow members of the “squad” suffered defeats this summer. 

Omar defeated former Minneapolis City Council member Don Samuels, who lost to her by just 2 percentage points in the 2022 primary, and two other challengers in Minnesota’s 5th District. 

Reps. Jamaal Bowman, of New York, and Cori Bush, of Missouri — also members of the progressive “squad” of lawmakers of colors — lost primaries in recent weeks that centered on the Democratic Party’s split over the Israel-Hamas war. 

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign bashed Elon Musk’s interview with former President Donald Trump that was hosted on X, The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter, issuing a statement that dunked on the two participants as “self-obsessed rich guys” who couldn’t run a livestream.

The chat between Musk and the ex-president got off to a late start, as many users were initially unable to tune in for over half an hour after the Space was supposed to open. The interview finally got started around 8:45 pm ET.

Musk claimed the problem was due to a “massive DDOS attack,” but the rest of Twitter/X — including Spaces — was showing normal functionality for users, and The Verge reported that several sources at X said that “there wasn’t actually a denial-of-service attack,” and there was a “99 percent” chance Musk was not telling the truth.

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

A New York judge ruled Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ballot-access petition in the state is invalid, delivering the first major blow to the independent presidential candidate’s bid for nationwide ballot access.

New York Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba accepted the arguments made by Democratic voters and supported by Clear Choice PAC, a pro-Kamala Harris group seeking to combat third party candidates, which claimed Kennedy violated state law by listing a New York address as his residence on the petition despite living in California.

Ryba wrote that Kennedy’s listed New York address was not a “bona fide and legitimate residence, but merely a ‘sham’ address that he assumed for the purpose of maintaining his voter registration and furthering his own political aspirations in this State.”

Read the rest of the story at CNN

A ballot measure for a proposed Arizona constitutional amendment that would establish a “fundamental right to abortion” has garnered enough signatures to be on the state’s ballot.

The Arizona Abortion Access Act received 577,971 certified signatures, the Arizona secretary of state’s office confirmed Monday – nearly 200,000 more than required to appear on the November ballot. An estimated 800,000 signatures were submitted, the office said.

The measure would enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution up to fetal viability, which doctors believe is around 22 to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

Donald Trump’s campaign, which has whiffed in its early attacks on Kamala Harris’ new presidential campaign, will grapple this week for a more effective foothold after the vice president transformed an election of stunning surprises.

The ex-president has deployed some of his most trusted political tools — targeting racial identify, creating alternative realities, flinging insults and gaslighting. On Sunday, for instance, he spread a new false conspiracy theory over the size of Harris’ rally crowd in Michigan last week. But his efforts to bring down his new adversary and her policy of ignoring his provocations have so far more highlighted his own liabilities than hers and emphasized the way Harris could offer a new choice for voters.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

Vice President Kamala Harris pledged Saturday to eliminate taxes on tipped wages for service workers, matching a proposal from former President Donald Trump.

During a rally in Las Vegas she held alongside her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris praised the work of the Culinary Workers Union, which endorsed her Friday, and vowed to continue to support policies that would benefit the union’s workers.

“When I am president, we will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage, and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers,” Harris said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Vice President Kamala Harris will not agree to a Sept. 4 debate on Fox News against former President Donald Trump but could take up his offer for multiple debates if he shows up for their scheduled Sept. 10 debate on ABC News, a report claims.

Trump proposed three debates during a lengthy press conference on Thursday afternoon. In addition to the ABC debate which Trump initially agreed to with the Biden campaign, the former president pitched debates on Fox News and NBC scheduled for Sept. 4 and Sept. 24, respectively.

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Vice President Kamala Harris took her first questions from the press on Thursday since becoming the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Harris – who has received criticism for dodging questions from the press since she launched her presidential campaign last month – answered a few short questions from reporters on Thursday evening, addressing debates with former President Donald Trump and Republican attacks on her running mate Tim Walz.

“VP Kamala Harris took a few questions on the tarmac just now,” reported Politico White House correspondent Eugene Daniels in a series of social media posts. “On a sit-down interview: ‘I’ve talked to my team. I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month.’”

Read the rest of the story at Mediaite

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday appeared to confuse former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown with former California Gov. Jerry Brown in recounting what he characterized as a near-death experience.

During a news conference from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump said he once flew with Willie Brown in a helicopter that “went down” when he was asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ past relationship with the former mayor and whether he thought the relationship had played a role in her career path.

“In fact, I went down in a helicopter with him. We thought maybe this is the end. We were in a helicopter going to a certain location together, and there was an emergency landing. This was not a pleasant landing, and Willie was, he was a little concerned,” Trump said. “So I know him. I know him pretty well.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

A Pakistani national with purported ties to Iran was arrested last month on charges he plotted to assassinate former President Donald Trump and multiple other public officials, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court.

While the criminal complaint does not mention Trump by name, multiple sources familiar with the case told ABC News one of the intended targets of the alleged plot was Trump. Other possible targets included government officials from both sides of the aisle, the sources said.

After spending time in Iran, Asif Merchant flew from Pakistan to the U.S. to recruit hitmen to carry out the alleged plot, according to a detention memo. The person he contacted was a confidential informant working with the FBI, according to the criminal complaint.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Vice President Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate, adding a popular Midwestern state executive to the Democratic ticket as the party gears up to hold onto key northern battleground states this fall.

Harris’ campaign texted supporters Tuesday morning, calling Walz “a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families” and asking for donations to support the new ticket.

In picking Walz, who’s in his second term and also served 12 years in Congress, Harris will have as her No. 2 someone with a proven record of winning over white working-class voters in Rust Belt states while also boasting a robustly progressive record.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ office announced Monday that Jenna Ellis, a former Donald Trump attorney and one of the 18 defendants in the Arizona “fake electors” case stemming from the 2020 election, is cooperating with the prosecution.

Ellis signed the cooperation agreement Monday morning, according to the announcement, which said prosecutors are dropping the charges against her.

“This agreement represents a significant step forward in our case,” Mayes, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I am grateful to Ms. Ellis for her cooperation with our investigation and prosecution.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The head of a Senate panel investigating Clarence Thomas said Monday that the Supreme Court justice had failed to disclose additional private jet travel.

In a letter to an attorney for conservative megadonor Harlan Crow, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said flight records show that in 2010 Thomas and his wife traveled round-trip from Hawaii to New Zealand aboard Crow’s private jet.

Wyden, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said the finding intensified his concerns that Crow was engaged in a scheme to avoid paying taxes.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Vice President Kamala Harris will set out this week on a swing-state campaign blitz, giving her a far heavier travel schedule than her opponent, former President Donald Trump.

It will be a critical week for Harris, who is rushing to introduce herself to voters with just three months until Election Day. It will also be the first time she will appear with her yet-to-be-announced running mate.

Starting Tuesday, Harris will campaign across seven swing states over five days, one of the heaviest weeks of campaign-related travel in the general election.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Hurricane Debby is nearing landfall, with the eyewall moving onshore in the Florida Big Bend area, according to a special 4 a.m. ET update from the National Hurricane Center.

Landfall is when the center of the eye moves over land.

Debby has sustained maximum winds of 80 mph, with stronger gusts. It is about 40 miles west-northwest of Cedar Key, 80 miles south-southeast of Tallahassee, Florida, and is moving to the north-northeast at 12 mph.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

Boosted by Democrats, younger and Black voters becoming more engaged and likely to vote, and by women decidedly thinking she’d favor their interests more, Vice President Kamala Harris has reset the 2024 presidential race. 

She has a 1-point edge nationally — something President Biden never had (he was down by 5 points when he left the race) — and Harris and former President Donald Trump are tied across the collective battleground states. 

Looking ahead, voters are also defining why the next few weeks could be critical. 

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.acknowledged Sunday that he abandoned a young dead bear in Central Park after he initially planned to skin the cub for meat.

Kennedy said in a three-minute video on X that The New Yorker magazine found out about the incident, the date of which is unknown, and asked him for confirmation. Kennedy described driving north of New York City to go falconing with a group when he saw a woman in a van hit and kill a young bear.

“So I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him in the back of my van because I was going to skin the bear, and it was very good condition,” Kennedy said in the video, talking to Roseanne Barr. “And I was going to put the meat in my refrigerator.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance brought his fiery campaign rhetoric on immigration to the U.S.-Mexico border Thursday as the Trump campaign drubs Vice President Kamala Harris over the Biden administration’s approach to border security. 

Sharpening his attacks on Harris from the stump in recent days, Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio, visited an unfinished part of the border wall in Arizona — a stark visual to drive home the campaign’s juxtaposition of Harris’ and Trump’s records. 

“It is not hard to secure the southern border. You just have to reimplement some commonsense policies,” Vance said after he received a briefing from border patrol union members, a representative from the sheriff’s department and a local rancher. 

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The vetting team for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has met with six potential running mate contenders as her selection process nears its end, two sources familiar with the campaign said.

The six contenders are Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

All of them are around the same age as Harris, 59, or younger, and most have already stumped for the vice president on the campaign trail or in media appearances since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Republican senators ABC News spoke with Thursday squirmed when asked about former President Donald Trump falsely questioning Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity during his interview at the National Association of Black Journalists convention a day earlier — as the former president doubled down on the false attack.

In a social media post Thursday morning, former President Donald Trump shared a family portrait of Vice President Kamala Harris and wrote, “Your warmth, friendship, and love of your Indian Heritage are very much appreciated.”

His social media post reiterated his false claim that Harris only emphasized her Asian-American heritage — something he mentioned during his interview at the NABJ convention on Wednesday.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

At an event in Houston tonight for the historically Black sorority Sigma Gamma Rho, Harris said Trump’s comments at an appearance at an annual convention of Black journalists today were divisive and disrespectful.

“It was the same old show — the divisiveness and the disrespect,” Harris said. “And let me just say the American people deserve better. The American people deserve better.”

Trump had engaged in a hostile exchange with journalists asking him questions during a panel at the event this afternoon, and he had falsely questioned Harris’ Black identity, saying that a number of years ago “she happened to turn Black and now wants to be known as Black.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Three men accused of plotting the 9/11 attacks, including alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have reached plea agreements in the military commissions process, officials said Wednesday.

Mohammed, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi are scheduled to appear at a hearing at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, next week, according to the Office of Military Commissions.

The details of the plea agreement are unclear, but the defendants are expected to plead guilty to lesser charges that could spare them the death penalty.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The United Auto Workers has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris over Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump.

The union’s endorsement shouldn’t be surprising. UAW President Shawn Fain has been outspoken against Trump. The Detroit union also has historically supported Democrats, including President Joe Biden.

It comes after Biden withdrew his re-election bid and endorsed Harris to become the Democratic nominee against Trump.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

On the campaign trail in Nevada on Tuesday, Ohio Sen. JD Vance attacked Vice President Kamala Harris as “dangerously liberal” and reiterated former President Donald Trump’s pledge to launch mass deportation operations in his second term.

Trump’s running mate is attempting to introduce himself to a national audience as the Harris campaign and other Democrats paint him as out-of-touch, hard right and “anti-woman,” with a particular focus on his anti-abortion stances and previous comments describing Harris — the Republican ticket’s likely Democratic opponent in November — and other leaders in the Democratic Party as “a bunch of childless cat ladies.”

Read the rest of the story at Spectrum

The Heritage Foundation official leading Project 2025 is stepping down and the group is winding down its policy work following sustained criticism by former President Donald Trump and his campaign.

Trump’s campaign said in a statement Tuesday that the announcement should put on notice others trying to link themselves to Trump and that it “welcomed” reports of the group’s “demise.”

“Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with President Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you,” co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles said.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

As soon as this Thursday, delegates in the Democratic Party will hold a virtual vote to select their new nominee. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to run unopposed. Here’s more on what it means and how the vote will work:

Who gets to vote?

The nearly 4,000 pledged delegates allocated during the Democratic primary process will be voting on the nomination. 

Do Biden’s delegates automatically go to Harris?

The vast majority of the party’s delegates were pledged to President Biden before he dropped out and endorsed Harris. These delegates weren’t automatically assigned to Harris, but within the 48 hours of her campaign launch, an overwhelming majority of the delegates said they would back her. 

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

Some famous “white dudes” — including the guy who played “The Dude” — rallied in support of Vice President Kamala Harris, who would be the first female president if elected, in the inaugural event of a new group called White Dudes for Harris on Monday night.

The name may be a bit facetious, but the star-studded Zoom call attracted more than 180,000 participants and raised almost $4 million, according to organizers, who are themselves a group of white dude Democratic political operatives. 

Over the nearly 3½-hour call, they said, they sold more than 5,700 White Dudes for Harris trucker caps — “not the pointy ones,” joked Ross Morales Rocketto, one of the organizers, referring to less PC gatherings of white dudes like the Ku Klux Klan.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has informed Kamala Harris‘ presidential campaign that he does not want to be under consideration in her search for a vice presidential candidate, he said Monday night.

Cooper said in a statement explaining his decision that although he was taking himself out of consideration, he’s still backing Harris’ candidacy.

“I strongly support Vice President Harris’ campaign for President,” Cooper said. “I know she’s going to win and I was honored to be considered for this role. This just wasn’t the right time for North Carolina and for me to potentially be on a national ticket.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

A rocket attack Saturday on a soccer field in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights killed at least 12 children and teens, and wounded several others, Israel said, hours after an Israeli airstrike on south Lebanon killed three members of the militant Hezbollah group.

The strike, the deadliest attack on Israeli civilians since the fighting between the two foes erupted on Oct. 7, raised fears of a broader conflagration in the region. 

Hezbollah chief spokesman Mohammed Afif told The Associated Press that the group “categorically denies carrying out an attack on Majdal Shams.” It is unusual for Hezbollah to deny an attack.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

A widespread Microsoft outage disrupted flights, banks, media outlets and companies around the world on Friday.

Escalating disruptions continued hours after the technology company said it was gradually fixing an issue affecting access to Microsoft 365 apps and services.

The website DownDectector, which tracks user-reported internet outages, recorded growing outages in services at Visa, ADT security and Amazon, and airlines including American Airlines and Delta.

News outlets in Australia reported that airlines, telecommunications providers and banks, and media broadcasters were disrupted as they lost access to computer systems. Airlines in the U.K., Europe and India reported problems and some New Zealand banks said they were offline.

Read the rest of the story at AP News

President Joe Biden feels personally hurt and betrayed by the way so many Democrats, including some of the party’s top leaders, have left him hung out to dry as he faces the biggest crisis of his political career, according to two sources familiar with his thinking.

And privately, many of those leaders have expressed doubts about his path forward.

Former President Barack Obama’s only public comment came the day after Biden’s disastrous debate last month, when he tweeted “Bad debate nights happen“ and talked about his former vice president’s virtues. Privately, however, Obama has concerns.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Former President Donald Trump pitched a familiar worldview Thursday night: an administration that would stop wars, curb inflation and end illegal immigration.

But his third Republican National Convention speech — the longest nomination acceptance address in modern history, at 93 minutes — included a series of false claims on topics from taxes to crime to foreign policy.

Here’s what Trump said in Milwaukee and the facts behind his claims.

The gunman who opened fire at former President Donald Trump’s Pennsylvania rally was reported as a suspicious person — and photographed — one hour before he began shooting, according to three sources familiar with a briefing for senators Wednesday.

Secret Service and FBI officials shared a timeline of events that revealed troubling new details about the assassination attempt and raised questions about why Secret Service officials allowed Trump to take the stage.

Thomas Matthew Crooks — who had a range finder and a backpack with him — was reported as a suspicious person one hour before he began shooting, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said in a statement after the briefing.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, a right-wing populist known for his unbending opinions, introduced himself Wednesday as a vice presidential candidate open to compromise and eager for unity, but unapologetically drawn to hot-button debates.

“We have a big tent in this party, on everything from national security to economic policy,” Vance told Republican National Convention delegates as he accepted their nomination to be Donald Trump’s running mate. “But my message to you, my fellow Republicans, is: We love this country, and we are united to win. And our disagreements actually make us stronger.” 

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Rep. Adam Schiff, a prominent Democrat and leading candidate for Senate in California, urged President Joe Biden on Wednesday to “pass the torch” and exit the presidential race.

“Joe Biden has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history, and his lifetime of service as a Senator, a Vice President, and now as President has made our country better,” Schiff said in a statement.

“But our nation is at a crossroads,” he added. “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November.”

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

A band of House Democrats is seeking to halt the Democratic National Committee from quickly coronating Joe Bidenas the party’s presidential nominee before the August convention, warning that it could be seen as quashing the raging debate over whether Biden should stay at the top of the ticket.

More than 20 Democrats have signed onto a draft letter, obtained by NBC News, calling on the DNC to pump the brakes on holding a “virtual roll call” formally nominating Biden in a process that could start as soon as Sunday. The DNC initially had planned to do the virtual roll call ahead of the Chicago convention to address challenges of getting Biden on the Ohio ballot, but state lawmakers have since pushed the ballot deadline until after the convention.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

US authorities obtained intelligence from a human source in recent weeks on a plot by Iran to try to assassinate Donald Trump, a development that led to the Secret Service increasing security around the former president, multiple people briefed on the matter told CNN.

There’s no indication that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the would-be assassin who attempted to kill the former president on Saturday, was connected to the plot, the sources said.

The existence of the intelligence threat from a hostile foreign intelligence agency — and the enhanced security for Trump — raises new questions about the security lapses at the Saturday rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and how a 20-year-old man managed to access a nearby rooftop to fire shots that injured the former president.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

Former President Donald Trump welcomed vanquished rivals at his Republican National Convention here Tuesday, keeping watch as, one by one, they stuck to a carefully stage-managed script of party unity.

There was Nikki Haley, who took more than two months to endorse him after she ended her White House bid, speaking to “those who have some doubts” about Trump. There was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Trump ally-turned-challenger, unleashing a robust attack on President Joe Biden.

And there was Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who eight years ago in Cleveland urged conventiongoers to “vote your conscience,” thanking “God Almighty” for “turning [Trump’s] head on Saturday as the shot was fired” in an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Authorities said Monday that they had accessed the phone of the person who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump and had completed searches of his car and his family’s home in suburban Pittsburgh as ongoing efforts to understand the shooter’s motives have so far come up empty.

The FBI said its investigation remains in the “early stages,” but the immediate lack of a clear motive for Saturday’s shooting at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, has only deepened the mystery around the gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, more than 24 hours after authorities released his name. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was whisked off the stage during the shooting, which killed a former fire chief and injured two other people.

Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler who spent more than 25 years with the bureau, first as a field agent and then in the behavioral science unit, said the lack of information about Crooks, 20, poses a challenge for law enforcement.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The federal judge overseeing former President Donald J. Trump’s classified documents case threw out all of the charges against him on Monday, ruling that Jack Smith, the special counsel who filed the indictment, had been given his job in violation of the Constitution.

In a stunning decision delivered on the first day of the Republican National Convention, the judge, Aileen M. Cannon, found that Mr. Smith’s appointment as special counsel was improper because it was not based on a specific federal statute and because he had not been named to the post by the president or confirmed by the Senate.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Some high-profile speakers on the first night of the Republican National Convention leaned into anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, doubling down on the party’s 2024 platform, which calls for keeping “men out of women’s sports” and ending “left-wing gender insanity.”

Their speeches Monday especially targeted transgender and non-gender-conforming people.

“Let me state this clearly: There are only two genders,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

Rep. John James, R-Mich., criticized transgender women’s playing in women’s sports, a popular conservative talking point.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Top leaders in Congress quickly unified to rebuke a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a Saturday rally, demanding briefings and planning investigations into the incident that left the former president injured.

“Congress will do a full investigation of the tragedy yesterday to determine where there were lapses in security and anything else that the American people need to know and deserve to know,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Sunday on the “TODAY”show. “But in the meantime, we’ve got to turn the rhetoric down. We’ve got to turn the temperature down in this country.”

Johnson said he has “gotten briefings from law enforcement” and asked “pointed questions” of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Saturday night.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

A man killed at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday has been identified as 50-year-old former fire chief Corey Comperatore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced Sunday.

Two other Pennsylvania residents were also shot at the rally, Shapiro said. They were identified by Pennsylvania State Police as David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74. They’re both in stable condition.

Comperatore was an avid supporter of Trump and excited to be at Trump’s rally Saturday in Butler, Shapiro said. He was there with his wife and two daughters and dove over them to protect them when gunshots were heard in the crowd.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

The man who authorities said attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania was a member of a local gun club and worked as a dietary aide at a nursing facility.

The shooter, identified by the FBI as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, was killed by at least one Secret Service sharpshooter, authorities said.

Corey Comperatore, 50, a former chief of the Buffalo Township Volunteer Fire Company, was identified as the sole victim fatally shot by Crooks during Saturday’s attempt in Butler. Two other people were injured and are stable.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Joe Biden’s campaign Thursday laid out what it views as its path to victory in an internal memo as the Democratic Party convulses over the fallout from his shocking debate last month.

The memo, obtained by ABC News, is from campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who said that Biden’s “clearest pathway” to victory runs through the Rust Belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, though it insists that states such as Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina aren’t “out of reach.”

Still, the two campaign leaders conceded that “movement” after the debate is “real” but “not a sea-change in the state of the race.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Former President Donald Trump has asked a state court judge to toss out his criminal conviction in New York, pointing to the Supreme Court’s recent immunity decision that outlines when a former president must be shielded from prosecution.

While the effort to toss out the jury’s verdict likely faces an uphill battle with Judge Juan Merchan, the last-ditch bid already succeeded in getting Trump’s sentencing date postponed.

Sentencing had been scheduled for Thursday but was delayed by Merchan last week to allow him more time to consider legal briefing on the immunity question from both sides. Prosecutors are expected to respond to the latest filing by July 24, and that sentencing is currently set for Sept. 18.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

At least three more House Democrats called on President Joe Biden to withdraw from the presidential race Thursday after his first solo news conference in months following the NATO summit.

Even though Biden’s team felt optimistic about his performance, it remained unclear whether he did enough to repair the damage with members of his party who worry he no longer has what it takes to defeat Donald Trump and be effective for another four years.

Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., praised Biden as “a remarkable leader of unparalleled public service” but said it’s time to go.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Seven battleground states are sending fake electors and others who worked to upend the 2020 election results to represent their state parties at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where they will officially anoint Donald Trump as their presidential nominee.

The fake electors and other election deniers identified by CNN include several who are currently facing criminal charges for their efforts in helping Trump try to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory. They hail from the states that were central to that plot last presidential cycle: Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin, according to lists published by state parties and other documents obtained by CNN.

They’ve been selected to serve as national committee members, delegates or alternates with one clear task: Make Trump’s nomination official.

Read the rest of the story at CNN

Actor George Clooney, who just weeks ago hosted a fundraiser for President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign, called for the president to exit the 2024 race in a New York Times op-ed published Wednesday.

“I love Joe Biden. As a senator. As a vice president and as president. I consider him a friend, and I believe in him. Believe in his character. Believe in his morals. In the last four years, he’s won many of the battles he’s faced,” Clooney wrote.

“But the one battle he cannot win is the fight against time. None of us can. It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fund-raiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020. He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York introduced articles of impeachment against Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on Wednesday, ramping up Democrats’ disapproval of the high court in the wake of ethics issues and a spate of major decisions at the close of its latest term. 

It is all but certain that the resolutions will die in the Republican-controlled House, where GOP lawmakers have accused Democrats of mounting a campaign to undermine the court’s legitimacy in response to rulings on abortion, guns and presidential power they dislike. Still, the move by Ocasio-Cortez escalates Democrats’ scrutiny of the high court’s conservative justices, who hold six of the nine seats. The Supreme Court did not immediately return a request for comment.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

A growing number of Democratic lawmakers are voicing their concerns that President Joe Biden’s poor public approval ratings will hurt the party’s prospects for retaining the Senate, which they control by a 51-49 majority, and winning back the House, where Republicans have a 219-213 majority.

Biden faces a critical week as he tries to shore up a campaign on defense since a shaky June 27 debate against Republican Donald Trump in Atlanta, which raised questions about his ability to do the job for another four years.

According to an exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll, the former president edged ahead of Biden 41% to 38% in one survey conducted immediately after the debate.

Read the rest of the story at USA Today

President Biden held a video call with nearly 200 Democratic mayors on Tuesday night, reiterating that he was staying in the presidential race, reminding the city leaders how best to support his campaign and discussing his second-term agenda.

Mr. Biden, his campaign and the White House have been working to dismiss and defuse Democratic criticisms about his viability after his poor debate showing. Those efforts included a gathering of Democratic governors last week at the White House, a television interview with ABC News two days later and calls on Monday to top donors, congressional leaders and a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Democrats in Congress met Tuesday as lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill this week for the first time following President Biden’s calamitous debate last month, which has prompted concern among the party about the path forward and calls for Mr. Biden to drop out of the 2024 presidential race. 

During what’s shaping to be a critical week in Mr. Biden’s effort to remain in the presidential race, House Democrats met behind closed doors on Tuesday to privately debate his place at the top of the ticket.

The meeting, which took place at Democrats’ campaign headquarters, outside of the Capitol, lasted for nearly two hours, with members taking two-minute turns to speak. The discussion, described by Democrats as a “listening session,” seemed to mirror the larger public discourse around the president in recent days, with some Democrats affirming their support for Mr. Biden, while others called for him to step aside, and scores others saying they’d reserve judgment until they saw more of the president in public.

Read the rest of the story at CBS News

The Republican National Committee’s platform committee adopted a new GOP platform on Monday — and it softens language on the issue of abortion, marking a shift in the party’s stance to more closely align with the views of former President Donald Trump.

The platform says that Republicans “will oppose Late Term Abortion while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments),” according to the document obtained by ABC News.

The 2024’s brief section on abortion also states that the GOP “believes” that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution “guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights” – bolstering Trump’s view that the issue should be determined at the state level. That’s a change from the GOP’s 2016 and 2020 platforms that supported legislation that would have imposed a 20-week federal abortion ban — language that Trump ran on both cycles.

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

In a lengthy letter to Democrats, President Joe Biden on Monday says it is time for the party to come together so it can have the best chance at beating Donald Trump.

“The question of how to move forward has been well-aired for over a week now. And it’s time for it to end,” Biden says. “We have one job. And that is to beat Donald Trump. We have 42 days to the Democratic Convention and 119 days to the general election. Any weakening of resolve or lack of clarity about the task ahead only helps Trump and hurts us. It is time to come together, move forward as a unified party, and defeat Donald Trump.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

In a letter released late Monday night by the president’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, he confirmed that Dr. Kevin Cannard, the Parkinson’s expert who visited the White House eight times in an eight-month span, “was the neurological specialist that examined President Biden for each of his annual physicals.”

Canard’s visits to the White House don’t represent examinations of the president, according to O’Connor’s letter. Cannard is involved in a range of care for others beyond the president at the White House, O’Connor said in his note.

“Prior to the pandemic, and following its end, [Cannard] has held regular Neurology clinics at the White House Medical Clinic in support of the thousands of active-duty members assigned in support of White House operations,” his letter reads. “Many military personnel experience neurological issues related to their service, and Dr. Canard regularly visits the WHMU as part of this General Neurology Practice.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., on Sunday said Vice President Kamala Harris could “overwhelmingly” win against former President Donald Trump but that President Joe Biden must decide whether he will remain in the race as the Democratic Party’s nominee amid backlash over his disastrous debate performance.

Asked about polling that showed Harris outperforming Trump if she replaced Biden, Schiff said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he thought she would be a “phenomenal president.”

“I think she has the experience, the judgment, the leadership ability to be an extraordinary president,” Schiff told moderator Kristen Welker.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

Beryl strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane Sunday night, ahead of its anticipated arrival on the Texas coast, where it could bring a life-threatening storm surge and strong winds, U.S. forecasters said.

The storm’s maximum sustained winds increased to 75 mph late Sunday, upgrading it from its status as a tropical storm, according to the National Hurricane Center, citing National Weather Service radar and reports from an Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft.

Beryl was about 65 miles south-southeast of Matagorda, Texas, and moving north-northwest at 10 mph, according to an 11 p.m. local time update from the hurricane center.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

A tense alliance between France’s centrist and leftist parties has kept the far-right National Rally party at bay, according to exit polls, with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal set to resign.

In a surprising upset for the far right, a bloc of left-wing parties is projected to finish first, while President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist alliance is predicted to come in second. Polling agencies suggest National Rally, known in France as RN, is set to come in third, despite having swept to victory after the first round of voting last weekend and polling highest among the parties.

Voter turnout was the highest in decades at 67.1%, and official resultsare expected early Monday.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News

President Joe Biden will sit down with ABC News on Friday for his first television interview since last week’s presidential debate.

The president’s poor performance in the debate has garnered calls for him to drop out of the race by politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Biden will speak to “Good Morning America” and “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos for the interview. A first look will air on the Friday, July 5, edition of “World News Tonight with David Muir” with portions airing on Saturday and Sunday on “Good Morning America.”

Read the rest of the story at ABC News

At a campaign fundraiser in McLean, Virginia, on Tuesday evening, President Joe Biden — for the first time — attributed his poor debate performance last week to the amount of foreign travel he did in June, according to notes from a small group of reporters permitted in the event.

“I decided to travel around the world a couple of times,” Biden said, referring to recent trips abroad, including his visit to France for the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

“I didn’t listen to my staff,” he continued, adding he “came back and nearly fell asleep on stage.”

Biden said Tuesday he was sorry for his debate performance but stressed that winning the election was “critical.”

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President Biden’s top campaign brass on Monday tried to tamp down the panic that had captured his financial base in the campaign’s most formal outreach yet to its wealthiest supporters after last week’s damaging debate.

In a Zoom audio call on Monday with about 500 members of the campaign’s National Finance Committee and some other contributors, some of the Biden campaign’s most senior officials, including the chair Jen O’Malley Dillon, the deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks and the pollster Molly Murphy, presided for an hour.

“Everyone just needs to breathe through the nose for minute,” Chris Korge, the finance chair of the Democratic National Committee, said toward the end of the call. The New York Times was connected to the call by an authorized participant.

Read the rest of the story at The New York Times

Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon surrendered on Monday to law enforcement to begin his four-month prison sentence for contempt of Congress.

He entered the Federal Correctional Institute Danbury, in Danbury, Connecticut, shortly before noon to begin serving his sentence.

The Supreme Court had on Friday denied Bannon’s request to remain out of prison during the appeals process after he filed an emergency appeal on Friday with the high court.

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Attorneys for Donald Trump indicated in a letter to the presiding judge in the former president’s hush money case that they want him to postpone sentencing and set aside the trial verdict following the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling Monday.

The lawyers said they want to brief New York state Judge Juan Merchan on the relevance of the high court’s immunity decision and an argument that the decision confirmed that the Manhattan district attorney should not have been able to offer evidence at trial concerning Trump’s official acts as president.

Trump’s attorneys are seeking to throw out his conviction 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and postpone next week’s sentencing, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Read the rest of the story at NBC News