Vice President Kamala Harris will deliver a speech on Friday that explicitly addresses abortion rights in Georgia, where news reports have shown that many women have died in the wake of the state’s six-week abortion ban.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are scrambling to ensure the U.S. intelligence community has enough money and resources to ensure the security of the country’s presidential candidates despite repeated threats of violence. The efforts follow an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in July at a rally in Pennsylvania and a second apparent assassination attempt last weekend at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
In early voting in three states that begins Friday, voters are divided on whether Harris or Trump would do a better job of managing the economy, a recent AP-NORC poll shows.
Follow AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here is the latest information:
Harris campaign: North Carolina ad is first to link Trump to lower-ballot candidate
Harris’ campaign is airing a recent commercial in contested North Carolina that is intended to highlight Trump’s ties to the controversial Republican gubernatorial candidate and key Trump surrogate.
The ad alternates between Trump’s praise for Robinson and the lieutenant governor’s comments supporting a statewide abortion ban with no exceptions. Harris is scheduled to give a speech on Friday focused entirely on abortion rights in Georgia, where news reports say women have died despite the state’s six-week ban.
Harris’ ad is the first to link Trump to a candidate on the lower ballots, according to her campaign. The release followed a CNN report Thursday about Robinson’s alleged posts on a porn website’s message board. Robinson has denied writing the posts, which contain racist and sexual comments. He said he would not let “offensive tabloid lies” push him out of the race.
Trump is campaigning in Wilmington on Saturday, but a person close to the Trump campaign and a second person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning, told AP that Robinson will not be with him.
The Harris campaign says the ad is part of its $370 million digital and television advertising reservations between Labor Day and Election Day.
In addition, the Democratic National Committee has put up billboards in nine locations in North Carolina, including Robinson’s hometown of Greensboro, featuring a photo of him next to Trump and positive comments from the Republican presidential candidate and former president about Robinson.
Jill Biden attends her first Cabinet meeting to discuss women’s health
President Joe Biden invited a special guest to his Cabinet meeting on Friday: his wife, Jill Biden. It was her first time attending.
Biden asked her to inform the group about recent White House efforts to change the approach to research into women’s health issues and augment funding for that research.
The First Lady said “incredible progress” has been made since she and the President launched the initiative in November after learning of “huge gaps in our understanding of women’s health.”
She called on several departments and agencies, including the Department of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health, to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to support research and innovation.
The First Lady said she would make a recent announcement in New York on Monday.
She said the steps taken so far would “give momentum to this research,” but added: “We need to keep moving forward.”
Early voting begins in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia
In-person voting for this year’s presidential election has officially begun, kicking off the six-week sprint to Election Day.
In Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia, the states with the first opportunities for early in-person voting, voters lined up to cast their ballots on Friday. About a dozen more states will follow suit by mid-October.
Some of the voters who cast their ballots on Friday said they did not want to wait, hoping to avoid potential trouble or chaos at the ballot box after a summer of political turmoil.
Given the ongoing problems of the U.S. Postal Service, other early voters may choose to vote in person rather than by mail to ensure their votes are counted.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has often tried to sow doubt about mail-in voting and encourage voters to vote in person on Election Day. But this year, Trump and the Republican National Committee, which he now controls, have begun using mail-in voting as a way to secure Republican votes before Election Day, just as Democrats have done for years.
Jason Miller arrived at a Minneapolis polling station well before polls opened at 8 a.m. and was first in line. He was one of about 75 people who cast their ballots in the city’s polling station in the first hour.
“Why not try to be the first? That’s fun, isn’t it?” said the 37-year-old painter.
Teamsters Rail Conference endorses Harris after national union declined to support
The Teamsters Rail Conference, which represents 70,000 members, endorsed Kamala Harris and Tim Walz on Friday.
The announcement came as a immense number of Teamsters locals are supporting the Democrats, even though the national union has declined to issue an endorsement for the presidential campaign.
“The lives and livelihoods of railroad workers depend on the decisions of the federal government more than those of most other workers,” the Teamsters Rail Conference said, citing Democratic support for worker-friendly policies such as paid diseased leave.
The support for rail workers deviates from an earlier statement by the Teamsters’ national leadership, which cited Harris’s stance on rail strikes as a reason for not supporting her.
Harris says she is “very proud” of Taylor Swift’s support
Vice President Kamala Harris said she was “very proud” of Taylor Swift’s support, but took a dig at the pop superstar over the Super Bowl in a video interview released Friday.
The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 to win the game in February.
Harris and Swift supported opposing teams. Harris, a former district attorney from San Francisco, is a 49ers fan, while Swift supports the Chiefs. Her boyfriend is Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
In the autocomplete interview with WIRED, for which Harris was available earlier this week, she mentioned the feud with Swift over the Super Bowl, but said, “Who gets mad at someone for sticking with their team?”
Of Swift’s support, Harris said, “I’m very proud to have Taylor Swift’s support,” and described the singer-songwriter as “an incredible artist.”
“I truly respect the courage she has shown throughout her career to stand up for what she believes is right,” the vice president said.
Swift announced her endorsement shortly after the conclusion of Harris’ debate with Republican Donald Trump on September 10.
Swift has a steadfast following among youthful women, a key demographic in the November election, and her recent tour has grossed more than $1 billion in ticket sales.
Tourists can finally visit the Oval Office. A replica opens near the White House
Washington, DC has a recent tourist attraction that is sure to be transformed once the next president takes office.
“The Peoples’s House: A Washington Experience” is scheduled to open Monday and will occupy three floors in an office building a block from the White House.
The education center features a full-scale replica of the Oval Office, furnished exactly as President Joe Biden’s office currently is – right down to his desk, the armchairs in front of the fireplace and the weathered family Bible that lies on a side table.
But it won’t look like that for much longer.
The plan is to modernize the replica of the oval next year, after either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump is elected in November and takes office and the decor is in place.
The replica will always reflect the Oval Office of the incumbent president and will therefore be updated regularly, said Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association.
The nonprofit organization raised money to open the educational center.
Admission is free, but time tickets are required.
Harris speaks openly about her gun ownership
Vice President Kamala Harris has been more open about her gun ownership in recent weeks, but on Thursday she spoke for the first time about what she would do with the gun she owns.
At a campaign rally hosted by talk show host Oprah Winfrey, Harris spoke about her efforts to curb violence and push for a recent assault weapons ban, and – to Winfrey’s surprise – mentioned owning a handgun.
“If someone breaks into my house, they’ll get shot,” Harris added. She continued, (*6*)
Oprah and Kamala Harris hold town hall meeting
A livestream featuring Vice President Kamala Harris and talk show host Oprah Winfrey, billed as a “Unite for America” rally, began Thursday evening and had already attracted more than 230,000 viewers on YouTube alone before Harris joined, as the Democrat relies on digital events to reach voters.
Winfrey hosted the event from suburban Michigan, a key campaign area. To spread Harris’ message, she relied on celebrities such as Brian Cranston, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock and Meryl Streep, as well as the stories of ordinary voters.
“I want to take my daughters to the White House to meet this black president,” said comedian Chris Rock.
Trump speaks with Jewish leaders in DC
Donald Trump appeared before Jewish leaders in Washington DC on Thursday to speak about anti-Semitism.
But as the former president is wont to do, he took a large detour at the beginning of his speech, mentioning his Republican allies in the audience by name, discussing the Green New Deal “hoax,” and pontificating at length about his poll numbers.
Trump arrived about an hour tardy for his speech, which was scheduled to begin around 6 p.m.
“Kamala Harris has done absolutely nothing. She has not lifted a finger to protect you or your children, or even protect you with words… I am here today to tell you that this ugly brand of anti-Semitic hatred against all of us – bigotry and hatred – will be pushed back… starting at noon on January 23rd,” he said.
“With your vote, I will be your protector and defender and the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.”
