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Updated Oct. 30, 2024, 11:35 AM UTC
What's happening on the campaign trail today
- Vice President Kamala Harris is campaigning in three key states a day after delivering what her campaign billed as her closing argument in a speech yesterday in Washington D.C. First, the vice president will deliver remarks in Raleigh, North Carolina, in the early afternoon before traveling to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Madison, Wisconsin for speeches.
- Former President Donald Trump is traveling to North Carolina as well for remarks in Rocky Mount in early afternoon before speaking at rally with former NFL quarterback Brett Favre in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
- Harris' running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will also be campaigning in North Carolina, stopping in Greensboro and Charlotte and giving remarks in Asheville.
- Meanwhile, Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, is holding a town hall in Bedford, Pennsylvania, with former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who has endorsed Trump.
‘Disruption and havoc’: Courtroom chaos of Trump’s first term expected to return if he wins election
Speaking to a federal judge in July 2019, a flummoxed career Justice Department lawyer made a statement that summed up former President Donald Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip and often chaotic form of governance.
“The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the president’s position on this issue,” Joshua Gardner told Maryland-based Judge George Hazel.
Gardner was trying to explain to the judge why the Trump administration had completely reversed its legal position in a high-profile and ultimately doomed attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
The previous week, the Supreme Court had issued a ruling that blocked the administration from seeking to add the question, and the Justice Department had appeared to concede that there was no way of revisiting the issue, with time running out for the census papers to be finalized.
But then Trump stepped in with one of his signature tweets, saying the administration was “absolutely moving forward” with the plan.
The move put Justice Department lawyers in a quandary, led to the entire legal team’s being replaced and still ended in defeat when, just days later, the administration backed down.
The incident was just one example of how Trump’s impulsive leadership style and frequent controversial pronouncements played a complicating role in the administration’s many court battles during his time in office. And there is little to suggest a second term would be any different.
Analysis: The 2024 election careens into its final, uncertain days
In many ways, the final week of a presidential campaign — for those of us who cover presidential politics — is akin to being in the eye of a hurricane. There’s an eerie calm that you know is about to disappear, but the anticipation is agonizing. There’s not a lot more to report or unearth. All you can do is wait (and continue to prepare).
That preparation includes running through every potential outcome and thinking about how the campaign might get there. For the purposes of this exercise, I want to essentially brain-dump everything I’m thinking about how this campaign could end and let that serve as a guide for how I’m watching the final days — and what I’ll be looking for on election night (or week).
For me, this endgame feels more like 2000 and 2004 than like any of former President Donald Trump’s previous elections (2016 and 2020). Why do I say that? For one thing, the polls are indicating a much closer race this time than in 2016 or 2020. The last time the polls were collectively this close in the final month of a campaign was during George W. Bush’s two successful presidential elections.
And I’d argue that in both of Bush’s elections, but 2000 especially, the campaigns ended in a sort of draw, in that both parties split the battleground states, rather than their being swept by one candidate. From 2008 through 2020, the winning candidate either swept or nearly swept the final six to eight battleground states.
This year, one could easily see the seven core battlegrounds splitting fairly evenly.
DNC runs full-page ads in 25 battleground state newspapers
Shaquille Brewster
In more than two dozen small newspapers across key battleground states today, voters will see a full-page ad from the Democratic Party reinforcing a central theme of Harris’ speech last night on the Ellipse.
“Unhinged. Unstable. Unfit to lead,” the ad reads in bold text above Trump’s mugshot. “Unfit to lead. We’re not going back.”
The Democratic National Committee says the ads will run in 25 suburban and exurban newspapers, with more than half appearing in the midwestern battlegrounds Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. A spokesperson says it’s the largest coordinated small newspaper buy from the DNC in the last three presidential cycles.
“In the final week of the election, Democrats are not leaving any stone unturned,” DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in news release announcing what the party says is a five-figure buy. “Reminding voters in key battleground states that their vote means the difference between chaos and revenge with Donald Trump, or a New Way Forward with Vice President Harris.”
The ad’s messaging intentionally mirrors Harris’ language from last night in a speech that her campaign called her “closing message.” Standing on the Ellipse near the National Mall, with the White House to her back, Harris told a crowd of tens of thousands that she wanted to “turn the page” on Trump, who nearly four years ago “stood at this very spot” and “sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election.”
“This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance and out for unchecked power,” Harris warned.
Progressive evangelical group rolls out ad narrated by George Clooney
In a new ad from the progressive evangelical group Vote Common Good, Oscar-winning actor George Clooney reminds male voters that “you can vote any way you want — and no one will ever know” — including your Republican friends.
In the 30-second ad, first shared with NBC News, three men enter a polling place together, with one of them saying, “C’mon, boys, let’s make America great again,” nodding to Trump’s campaign slogan. But when one of the men enters the ballot booth, he sees his young daughter nearby and decides to vote for Harris.
“What happens in the booth stays in the booth,” Clooney, a high-profile Democratic donor, says on the voiceover track. “Vote Harris/Walz.”
Vote Common Good released a similar ad this week focused on women and narrated by Oscar-winning actor Julia Roberts, who describes polling places as “the one place in America where women still have the right to choose.”
In that ad, a female voter in a Stars and Stripes baseball cap casts her vote for Harris. When she leaves the voting booth, a man who appears to be her husband asks: “Did you make the right choice?” She replies: “Sure did, honey.”
Doug Pagitt, an evangelical pastor and the executive director of Vote Common Good, said the goal of both ads is to remind voters that they can break with Republican friends and family members.
“We know the MAGA movement is putting increased pressure on people, but we also know the strong will of Americans when they stand in the voting booth,” Pagitt said.
Vote Common Good launched in 2018 as a progressive counterweight to Trump’s political strength with conservative evangelical Christians, a demographic that voted for him in overwhelming numbers in 2016 and 2020.
English (US) ·