The Latest: With just 5 days to go, Harris and Trump continue to battle for votes
Democrat Kamala Harris says recent comments by her opponent, Republican Donald Trump, are “offensive” and that it's clear he doesn't understand women.
She was responding to Trump, who said Wednesday that he will protect women, “whether the women like it or not.” The subtext of both Trump's and Harris' comments appears to be a 2022 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned federal abortion rights. Trump appointed three of the justices to the court who formed the conservative majority.
Harris said Thursday that Trump's comments are “offensive” to women and “their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies.”
Meanwhile, Trump is traveling to New Mexico and Virginia in the campaign’s final days. It’s a risky detour from the seven battleground states to spend time in places where Republican presidential candidates haven’t won in decades.
Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here's the latest:
White House press officials altered the official transcript of a call in which President Joe Biden appeared to take a swipe at supporters of Donald Trump, drawing objections from the federal workers who document such remarks for posterity, according to two U.S. government officials and an internal email obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.
Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told a Latino group on a Tuesday evening video call, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”
The transcript released by the White House press office, however, rendered the quote with an apostrophe, reading “supporter’s” rather than “supporters.”
The change was made after the press office “conferred with the president,” according to an internal email from the head of the stenographers’ office that was obtained by the AP. The authenticity of the email was confirmed by two government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters.
The supervisor, in the email, called the press office’s handling of the matter “a breach of protocol and spoliation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices.” The president’s remarks clashed with Vice President Kamala Harris’ near-simultaneous speech outside the White House in which she called for treating Americans of differing ideologies with respect.
▶ Read more about the stenographer’s concerns
Kamala Harris is heading to Michigan on Sunday for a series of campaign events in Detroit and East Lansing.
The Democratic presidential candidate is planning to attend, as well as deliver remarks, at a Black church in Detroit. She is then heading to several local stops in the area to try to engage with Black voters.
Later Sunday evening, Harris is expected to then hold a rally at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Democrats have been organizing heavily on the college campus as they try to turn our young voters.
Donald Trump is taking time between rallies to campaign against a fellow Republican: Rep. Dan Newhouse, who is one of the only House GOP lawmakers left in office who voted to impeach the former president.
“There’s nothing else he can do that would be worse than that,” Trump said on a tele-townhall for Republican Jared Sessler, who is running against Newhouse in a Republican-on-Republican race in Washington.
Trump also called Newhouse a “liberal” and derided him for voting to impeach him for his actions around the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, says that his son and daughter-in-law won’t move to Texas because of the state’s strict abortion restrictions as the campaign highlights the real-world impacts of abortion bans.
Emhoff, speaking on the podcast “A Touch More,” said his daughter-in-law is from Texas and had thought about eventually moving to the Austin area.
“They’re not going to move there because they want to start a family and, God forbid, something happens, you can’t get the medical treatment,” Emhoff said.
The Harris campaign is hoping to break through to voters with an argument that abortion restrictions cause far-reaching problems for every aspect of reproductive health care.
Harris campaigned in Texas last week to highlight the impacts of the state’s strict abortion ban, which prohibits physicians from performing abortions once cardiac activity is detected, which can happen as early as six weeks or before. Since the fall of the Roe v. Wade decision, 14 states have banned the procedure at every stage of pregnancy.
Third-party presidential candidate Cornel West lost a Supreme Court bid to be included on the presidential ballot in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday.
Justice Samuel Alito refused his emergency appeal in a brief order. He handles appeals originating in Pennsylvania.
The liberal academic would likely draw more votes away from Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris than former Republican President Donald Trump.
He was rebuffed in the lower court by a judge who cited federal precedent that courts should not disrupt imminent elections without a powerful reason for doing so.
Donald Trump is set to visit Dearborn, Michigan — the nation’s largest Arab-majority city — on Friday, according to a local business owner hosting Trump who first insisted the former president call for peace in Lebanon, which Israel invaded weeks ago.
Sam Abbas, the owner of The Great Commoner in Dearborn, told The Associated Press that Trump was set to visit his restaurant and that he expects the former president to discuss his plan to end the Israel-Hamas war.
“We expect some remarks around ending the war and bringing peace to the Middle East,” said Abbas. “I’m not here to get political. I’m not here to tell people which way I’m voting. I am simply here because our family is being slaughtered and we just want to end the war. Stop the bombing.”
Abbas said that Trump allies had reached out to him several weeks ago about hosting Trump in Dearborn. Before hosting Trump, Abbas said he wanted to see a statement from Trump that he said showed Trump “has the intentions of ending the war and helping us rebuild Lebanon and helping the displaced and the injured.”
That statement came Wednesday, when Trump posted on X that he wanted to “stop the suffering and destruction in Lebanon.”
“I will preserve the equal partnership among all Lebanese communities,” Trump said on X. “Your friends and family in Lebanon deserve to live in peace, prosperity, and harmony with their neighbors, and that can only happen with peace and stability in the Middle East.”
Dearborn, where nearly half of the 110,000 residents are Arab American, has become the center point of Democratic dissent over the Israel-Hamas war. Four years ago, Joe Biden won by a 3-to-1 margin in Dearborn. Now Democrats are concerned some of these voters will go to Trump or third-party candidates like Jill Stein.
“They finally put it out once it was put out, then we said, ‘OK, fine, let’s go ahead and, you know, have the event,’” said Abbas.
Thousands of women are expected to visit the grave of Susan B. Anthony after casting their ballots as a tribute to the suffragist who got arrested for doing the same.
With Kamala Harris on the presidential ballot, the crowds are expected to rival those seen in 2016 when another woman, Hillary Clinton, was the nominee. An estimated 10,000 people passed through Rochester, New York’s Mount Hope Cemetery that Election Day, making their way along a gravel footpath to cover Anthony’s headstone with “I Voted” stickers and flowers.
The cemetery says it is ready for what’s become an Election Day tradition. Protective plastic now covers Anthony’s headstone so the stickers won’t do damage and volunteers and extra security will be in place.
On Nov. 5, 1872, Anthony defied the law by casting a vote in the presidential election, leading to a charge of “knowingly voting without having a lawful right to vote.” She was found guilty at trial - but refused to pay the $100 fine. She died 14 years before ratification of the 19th Amendment giving women the constitutional right to vote.
At a New Mexico rally, Trump tells his supporters that his advisors told him he didn’t need to come to New Mexico because he wouldn’t be able to win the state.
But he asked for rally goers in Albuquerque to turnout the vote for him in the border state.
“One of the reasons we will win this state is you have one of the worst border problems of any state, and I’m the only one who will fix it,” he said.
Donald Trump’s campaign is seizing on remarks from top Harris surrogate Mark Cuban, who said, “You never see” Trump “around strong, intelligent women — ever.”
The statement, made in an interview with “The View,” drew immediate rebuke from Republican women, including Trump’s campaign chief, Susie Wiles.
“I’m told @mcuban needs help identifying the strong and intelligent women surrounding Pres. Trump. Well, here we are!” she wrote in a rare media post. “I’ve been proud to lead this campaign,” she said, while also pointing to Linda McMahon, who is co-chairing Trump’s transition effort, and Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, co-chair of the RNC.
Campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt also went after Cuban.
“This is extremely insulting to the thousands of women who work for President Trump, and the tens of millions of women who are voting for him,” she said in a statement.
JD Vance told podcaster Joe Rogan he became “red-pilled on the whole vax thing” when he got sick after being vaccinated against COVID-19.
He said it was the sickest he’s been in the past 15 years, adding he contracted COVID-19 five times and likened those illnesses to a sinus infection.
Scientists say severe complications from the COVID vaccine are rare and outweighed by the benefits, which include more mild symptoms from a COVID infection. However, much of Trump’s base is distrustful of the vaccines.
The vaccine is credited with saving 20 million lives in its first year.
Mark Cuban has told supporters of Kamala Harris at a rally Thursday that Donald Trump used to be “a little bit coherent.”
“But I don’t know what happened to him,” said Cuban, an owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and celebrity investor on “Shark Tank.”
The rally Thursday was at Recreational Eagle Center, the main sports and recreation facility on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus. The school has about 9,400 undergraduates and about 930 graduate students. A large sign on one end of the arena reads, “A New Way Forward for La Crosse.”
Cuban warned the crowd that if Trump was elected in November, his tariffs proposal would make holiday gifts cost 60% more than they are now.
“You won’t be able to afford the presents you want for your family and friends,” he said. The choice, he said, is to elect Harris.
Sen. JD Vance told podcaster Joe Rogan on Thursday that Trump first broached the topic of the Ohio lawmaker being his running mate on the morning of the July 13 Pennsylvania rally where Trump was shot.
The former president then suggested that Vance accompany him to the Butler rally later that day where they would announce the vice presidential pick together on stage.
“He looks at one of his staff members and says, ’actually, wouldn’t it really set the world ablaze if we just made the decision today,” Vance told Rogan.
Trump ended up changing his mind and going to the campaign stop on his own.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday that former President Donald Trump “damn near killed himself” when he got into a garbage truck before an event on Wednesday night.
Trump got into the truck before an event in Wisconsin to draw attention to President Joe Biden saying on Tuesday night “the only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters.”
Biden was responding to a comedian at a Trump rally calling Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” Biden later tried to clarify his statement, arguing he was referring to the comedian’s demonization of Latino voters.
“This dude is nearly 80 years old. He damn near killed himself getting into a garbage truck,” Walz said at an event in Pennsylvania. Trump twice missed the handle of the white garbage truck emblazoned with his name on Wednesday, and also appeared to lose his balance briefly after missing the door handle.
Walz’s comment came as he was trying to make an economic point about tariffs that Trump pledges to implement if elected.
“You would think over 80 years you would understand how a tariff works,” he said. “Smarter people than Donald Trump, which is a good chunk of folks … have gone on the record to say if Donald Trump goes forward with this plan, they will simply have to raise prices and pass them on to you.”
”Donald Trump saying China will pay for those tariffs the same way Mexico paid for the wall,” Walz said. “It’s not going to happen.”
Detroit has about 524,000 registered voters and it’s anticipated that voter turnout for this election will be somewhere between 51% and 55%, City Clerk Janice Winfrey told reporters Thursday.
Detroit voter turnout in the 2020 general election was 51%.
Security has been heightened and there will be a heavy police presence at Huntington Place convention center in downtown Detroit where ballots will be counted Tuesday night.
Winfrey says her office has been working with local police agencies, Michigan’s attorney general’s office and the Justice Department on what she calls a “comprehensive security plan throughout this week and the days moving forward.”
“This plan will continue through election night to insure the safety of our election workers and the integrity of the election process,” Winfrey said.
Kamala Harris said Thursday that Donald Trump’s comments on women at his latest rally were “very offensive.”
“He does not prioritize the freedom of women and the intelligence of women to make decisions about their own lives and bodies,” she said.
At a rally Wednesday, Trump embellished upon an earlier pledge to “protect” women by adding: “I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not.”
Harris said Thursday that the health care protections under the Affordable Care Act are on the line on Election Day.
She was responding to a comment by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who told Trump supporters that there would be “massive reform” to the law if Trump wins the presidential election.
Harris told reporters on Thursday morning in Wisconsin that it "has been a part of Donald Trump’s agenda for a very long time. He has made dozens of attempts to get rid of the ACA and now we have further validation of that agenda from his supporter, the speaker of the House.”
Trump was unsuccessful in repealing the health care law during his first four years in office, despite multiple Republican attempts. The most dramatic came in 2017 when the late Sen. John McCain, with a simple thumbs down, voted against repealing the law.
Hillary Clinton, the former first lady who ran as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, will campaign in Tampa, Florida, on Saturday to support the Harris-Walz campaign.
Clinton, who also served as the secretary of state during the Obama administration, will be attending two get-out-the-vote events to encourage voters to cast their ballots early.
Clinton endorsed Harris after her campaign launched in July, and the former first lady headlined fundraisers and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in support of the vice president.
Gwen Walz, U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath and Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson campaigned for Harris in Georgia, a key battleground state.
“This election is truly about life or death,” said McBath at a cafe north of Atlanta. “Women, particularly Black women and women of color in our state, are not getting access to the quality health care that they need and deserve.”
Walz, the wife of Harris running mate Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, said now is not the time for supporters to rest.
“This election is the ultimate group project,” said Walz, a teacher by profession. “And guess what? It’s pass/fail.”
At a rally Wednesday, Trump embellished upon an earlier pledge to “protect” women by adding: “I’m gonna do it whether the women like it or not.”
Walz slammed Trump for that comment.
She has a message for the other side, she said, and the crowd chanted it in unison:
“Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance, please mind your own business!”
Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says he had a phone call with Trump early Thursday in which he wished him luck on Election Day.
Trump regularly praises Orbán during his speeches, reminding supporters that the autocratic leader who has cozied up with Russia and China sees the former president as a respected and feared leader in the world.
Orbán had previously thrown his support for Trump and visited him in his Mar-a-Lago estate in July.
“Just got off the phone with President @realDonaldTrump . I wished him the best of luck for next Tuesday. Only five days to go. Fingers crossed,” Orbán posted on X.
A judge in Philadelphia has put a state challenge of Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day voter sweepstakes on hold while lawyers for the billionaire and his political action committee try to move the lawsuit to federal court.
The giveaways aim to boost Trump’s presidential campaign through Election Day. Democratic District Attorney Larry Krasner calls the America PAC sweepstakes an illegal lottery under Pennsylvania law.
Experts on election law question whether it violates federal law against vote-buying. Judge Angelo Foglietta heard motions from both sides on Thursday in a City Hall courtroom.
Rapper Cardi B will speak at Vice President Kamala Harris’ rally in Milwaukee on Friday, the latest in a long line of celebrities who have stumped for the Democratic nominee in the closing days of the 2024 campaign.
The Harris campaign announced the addition on Thursday. The event will also feature performances by GloRilla, Flo Milli, MC Lyte, The Isley Brothers, DJ GEMINI GILLY.
This is not the first time Cardi B has jumped into the political fray. The rapper was close to Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in 2020, including lauding his first run in 2016 and appearing in a video meant to appeal to young voters. She has also been an outspoken critic of Trump and supported President Joe Biden in 2020.
“I’m tired of getting upset every single time I see this man talk,” she said of Trump before Election Day in 2020.
Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk doesn't like a campaign ad for Harris that says a woman doesn't need to consult her husband when choosing who to vote for.
The ad shows a woman in a voting booth, casting a ballot for Harris. Then, as she leaves, her husband asks her if she made “the right choice” — strongly suggesting that the ‘right choice’ is Trump.
“Sure did honey," she responds.
Kirk, speaking on conservative Megyn Kelly’s podcast, labeled the ad “the embodiment of the downfall of the American family.”
The ad was by Vote Common Good, an outside organization that aims to target progressive, religious voters.
Harris has a new campaign ad in Spanish that will air in battleground states that seizes on comments made about Puerto Ricans during a Trump rally.
The ad, in Spanish, questions why a comic at the rally in New York would call the U.S. territory a “floating island of garbage.”
The ad's announcer says: “This Nov. 5 Trump will understand that some people’s trash is others’ treasure.”
Since the rally, Latino celebrities and leaders have come out in support of the Democratic nominee.
The ad is part of a larger $370 million buy, and will air on Univision and Telemundo during high viewership telenovelas, and on digital platforms including El Nuevo Día, YouTube and Snapchat.
Billions of dollars in ads are raining down on voters across the Rust Belt, Rocky Mountains and American Southwest as the two major political parties struggle for control of the U.S. Senate.
Republicans need to pick up two seats to capture a surefire majority, and one of those — West Virginia — is all but in the bag for the GOP.
Republican strategists say they’re targeting seven other states where Democrats are defending seats: Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Democrats, conversely, say they are forcing competitive contests in two red states, Texas and Nebraska.
Data from political ad tracking firm AdImpact projects that more than $2.5 billion will be spent on advertising in Senate races in this two-year campaign cycle, slightly more than the 2022 total.
Puerto Rican reggaeton singer Nicky Jam has withdrawn his endorsement of Trump.
Tony Hinchcliffe — a comic who called Puerto Rico “garbage” before a packed Trump rally in New York — appears to be the catalyst.
In a video statement posted to his Instagram, Jam says he thought Trump would be good for the economy. But after Hinchcliffe’s comments, he says can no longer support the former president.
Other Puerto Rican superstars have backed Harris, including Bad Bunny and Ricky Martin.
Trump is traveling to New Mexico and Virginia in the campaign’s final days — choosing to stump for votes in states that Republicans haven't won in decades.
The former president will campaign in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Thursday during a swing that will also take him to the battleground states of Arizona and Nevada.
He’ll be in Salem, Virginia, on Saturday. The Trump team is projecting optimism and thinks he can be competitive against Harris in New Mexico and Virginia.
A Philadelphia judge is set to hold a hearing in the city prosecutor’s bid to shut down Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day sweepstakes in battleground states.
The giveaways come from Musk’s political organization, which aims to boost Donald Trump’s presidential campaign through Election Day.
Democratic District Attorney Larry Krasner hopes to stop the America PAC sweepstakes. Judge Angelo Foglietta will hear motions Thursday on the issue in a City Hall courtroom. Matthew Haverstick is one of several lawyers representing the defendants.
Lawyers for Musk filed a motion late Wednesday seeking to move the case to federal court. However, a spokesperson for Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Thursday the initial hearing at City Hall was still scheduled.
Across the U.S., people’s phones are pinging with text messages from Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and their allies.
Both sides are working the texting pipeline aggressively in the presidential campaign’s last days. It’s a cheap and easy way to reach millions of potential donors and voters.
It’s also an aggravation for many. At recent Harris and Trump rallies, some of the attendees said enough already. But the texting torrent is not bound to let up before Election Day next week, if it even does then.
A new poll from The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that about 7 in 10 Americans report feeling anxious or frustrated about the 2024 presidential campaign, and a similar share say they’re interested.
Only about one-third say they feel excited.
About 7 in 10 Americans say “anxious” describes how they are feeling ahead of Tuesday. For partisans, anxiety is dialed a little higher than before.
About 8 in 10 Democrats say “anxious” describes how they are feeling now, up slightly from the last election. About two-thirds of Republicans are anxious, a moderate uptick from 2020.
© Copyright The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
