August 9, 2024, presidential campaign news

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Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana, on August 9.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday launched another string of attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris as he continued to pressure her to answer more questions from reporters.

“Since becoming a presidential candidate, she has refused to do a single interview. You know why? ‘Cause she’s dumb,” the former president said.

Trump falsely claimed that Harris was “refusing to debate” him. Harris and Trump have both agreed to a debate hosted by ABC News on September 10, and Harris told reporters Thursday she would be “happy” to discuss another debate after that.

Trump also said he didn’t care if he mispronounced Harris’ name and claimed without elaborating that “nobody really knows her last name.”  

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana, on August 9.

Donald Trump on Friday attacked Tim Walz’s progressive policies in the former president’s first campaign rally since the Minnesota governor became Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate. 

At a rally in Bozeman, Montana, Trump highlighted bills that Walz signed that expanded health care coverage for undocumented immigrants in Minnesota and that mandated that schools provide free menstrual products in all restrooms – for both girls and boys – regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12. He criticized Walz’s handling of the civil unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 and pointed to recent remarks the governor made that “one person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.”

Trump made a quick reference to the forceful attacks about Walz’s military service that the former president’s running mate, JD Vance, has deployed against the governor all week.

While Montana is reliably red, the state is hosting a pivotal Senate race, with Republicans looking to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Tester this year. Trump on Friday praised Tester’s GOP opponent, retired Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy, saying, “His really is valor. It’s valor for heroism award. You know, the other one talks about valor, he has a different kind of a valor, it’s the opposite.”

Background: Vance has accused Walz of “stolen valor” for language he used in a 2018 speech advocating an assault weapons ban, which the Harris campaign has included in a video on social media. Walz at the time said he wanted to “make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.” Walz never deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq or a combat zone as part of his service.

The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165 endorsed the Harris-Walz ticket ahead of their rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday.

The two unions are Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, and represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno. The Culinary Union is also the state’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak over 40 different languages.

The Culinary Union touted Harris’ record of prioritizing and protecting working families, including advocating for affordable housing. 

The union said in their endorsement that they believe Harris and Walz “will unite Black, Latinx, Asian American Pacific Islander, Indigenous, white, and immigrant workers to confront corporate greed and lower rent, gas, and grocery prices — unlike Republicans, who side with Wall Street landlords and the super-rich.”

Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris for President campaign manager, said in a statement, that Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “are honored” for the endorsement.

“Standing in solidarity by their side, we will fight for workers, and we will win,” Rodriguez said.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz stopped by Cocina Adamex, a local Latino-owned small business in Phoenix after their rally on Friday. They were also joined by Rep. Ruben Gallego.

Harris briefly spoke with the owner and asked about the history of the restaurant, which the owner said has only been open for two years.

Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, on August 9.

Vice President Kamala Harris reiterated her commitment to sign the bipartisan border security bill that failed to pass Congress earlier this year during remarks at a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday while accusing former President Donald Trump of pressuring Republicans to vote against the bill to “help him win an election.”

Harris told the thousands gathered at an arena in the Phoenix suburbs she will sign the bill, while calling for immigration reform that includes both “strong border security” and “an earned pathway to citizenship” and drawing a contrast to Trump’s record on immigration.

“Earlier this year, we had a chance to pass the toughest bipartisan bill in decades. But Donald Trump tanked the deal because he thought by doing that it would help him win an election. But when I am president I will sign the bill,” she continued, eliciting loud cheers from the audience.

Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on August 8.

Donald Trump didn’t go to Montana for a Friday night rally because he’s desperate for votes in the ruby-red state. He’s won it for two straight presidential elections, each time by more than 15 points.

The coming election figures to offer more of the same. The question, though, is whether Republican Senate nominee Tim Sheehy can come close to matching Trump and unseat the crafty Democratic incumbent Jon Tester. If Sheehy succeeds, the GOP’s road to a Senate majority becomes a whole lot clearer.

But there’s more to this trip than the usual election season maneuvering.

For Trump, ousting Tester has become something of an obsession. In 2018, he traveled to the state four times trying to boost support for Republican nominee Matt Rosendale – now a congressman – in his race against Tester. It didn’t work. Rosendale lost by about 3 points.

The former president’s beef with Tester dates back to 2018, when the Montana Democrat was ranking member of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and vehemently opposed Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, White House physician Ronny Jackson.

Jackson became a Trump favorite early on, when the physician stood up in front of the White House press corps in 2018 and gushed over Trump’s “incredible genes” and, as he told it, “very sharp, very articulate” manner of speaking.

A couple of months later, Trump tapped Jackson to lead the VA Department. It seemed an odd choice, given Jackson’s lack of experience for such a high-level job. But he might have been confirmed if not for the release of an explosive report by Democrats, led by Tester, alleging that Jackson was “abusive” to his colleagues and fast and loose with drug prescriptions. He was also accused of being intoxicated on the job and wrecking a government vehicle while drunk.

Jackson denied the charges and, after being elected to Congress years later, called the report a “political hit job.”

Trump, having held Jackson in such high regard, was infuriated at Democrats for undermining his pick. Jackson eventually withdrew himself from consideration for the post. In July 2018, Trump visited Montana, where he ripped into Tester.

“Jon Tester showed his true colors with his shameful, dishonest attacks on a great man,” Trump said of Jackson at a rally in Great Falls. “That’s probably why I’m here.”

Trump would return a few more times. Now, years later, he is back and once again seeking revenge.

Some younger supporters of former President Donald Trump said at a campaign rally in Montana Friday that their top issue this election was inflation, which was a big motivator for them to turn out for Trump in November.  

Beyton Owens, 18, says she’s worried about the price of gas because she’s constantly driving for her nannying jobs. She said inflation is top of mind this election “because of my gas and my shopping.”

And Tyler Sands, 28, says he had to move from California to Idaho in order to afford a home and thinks Trump can help bring the cost of living down. 

“To me, the American dream is owning a home,” Sands, who said he now owns a home, told CNN. He said this was his first Trump rally. 

Trump being on TikTok, Lauren Wetherell, 19, says, is “a huge thing” with younger voters, because “more people are getting to know him.” 

When asked if she thought young people were excited about Trump, she said “I think yes and no, I think it’s very 50/50.” 

Alexander Whitfield, 23, said he would be voting for Trump for the first time in November and has always been a fan of Trump’s. He said he grew up in a family that didn’t vote but has since left the Amish community and was looking forward to casting his vote this fall.  

“Trump has always been my — he’s been the GOAT. He’s the man. And if I was voting at the time I would’ve voted for him,” Whitfield said. 

Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, on August 9.

Vice President Kamala Harris responded Friday to pro-Palestinian protesters who interrupted her remarks at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, by saying that she and President Joe Biden are “working around the clock” to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and that “now is the time … to get the hostage deal done.”

As Harris began her remarks, a group of protesters began chanting off to her right. It was unclear to CNN what exactly was being said The crowd initially attempted to drown out the protesters with chants of “U-S-A.” As they continued to interrupt her, Harris stopped her planned remarks to address the protesters, while indicating she could not hear exactly what they were saying.

Harris then pivoted back to her prepared remarks, telling the protesters, “I respect your voice, but we are here to now talk about this race in 2024.”

The remark is Harris’ latest rebuff of pro-Palestinian protesters following her terse response to a group of people who interrupted her at a rally in Michigan on Wednesday. “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking,” she said to the protesters.

Harris’ latest call for a ceasefire comes after she recently spoke out forcefully about the situation in Gaza amid Israel’s military campaign in the region.

Following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, Harris implored him to agree to a ceasefire deal while saying that “we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering” of Palestinians in Gaza.

Kamala Harris arrives as she is introduced by running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at a campaign rally in Glendale, Arizona, on August 9.

Vice President Kamala Harris defended her record on securing the nation’s border, pointing to her experience as California’s attorney general.

Her comments come as Republicans have attacked Harris’ stance on border security.

Montana Sen. Steve Daines, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told reporters Friday that he personally encouraged former President Donald Trump to visit his non-battleground home state because he believes Montana will be the state that delivers Republicans the Senate majority come November.

Asked by CNN if he was the one who convinced Trump to stomp for Montana Senate nominee Tim Sheehy, Daines said he was, adding that his argument to the former president was that “one of the first phone calls you make as a new president is to the majority leader of the US Senate because our Founding Fathers gave a very important responsibility to the United States Senate, that was not given to the US House, and that’s personnel management. Every nominee from a president has to go through the US Senate.”

The NRSC chair also maintained that Vice President Kamala Harris’ ascension to Democratic standard-bearer “hasn’t changed the way we’re thinking about the Senate races,” though he did acknowledge the enthusiasm around her candidacy before calling it a “honeymoon phase.”

“There’s definitely a honeymoon period going on, and it’ll continue through the (Democratic National Convention). I think as we turn the corner in the middle of September, there’s going to be an awakening,” Daines said.

Daines also jabbed at Harris’ new ruling mate, Tim Walz, claiming that the Minnesota governor was “by far our favorite pick from the NRSC perspective.”

Sen. Mark Kelly and his wife former Rep. Gabby Giffords speak during a campaign rally for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz Glendale, Arizona, on August 9.

Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly on Friday defended Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s record of military service and attacked former President Donald Trump over his alleged past comments diminishing members of the military.

Speaking at a campaign rally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Glendale, Arizona, Kelly, a retired Navy pilot and astronaut, praised Walz’s years of service in the Minnesota Army National Guard and argued Walz’s experience in the military has informed his work in politics for the better. 

Kelly went on to argue that Trump has “zero respect” for military service members, pointing to past reports that he allegedly denigrated members of the military as “suckers and losers.”

“Now that’s not something I expect that Donald Trump would understand. Donald Trump calls those who served suckers and losers, and he has zero respect for any of us who have worn the uniform,” he said. “Here in Arizona, we don’t attack people for their service to our country. We thank them.”

Kelly’s defense comes as Republicans, led by Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have attacked Walz for past comments about his military service record.

Kelly, who praised Walz throughout his remarks, did not acknowledge Friday that he had been among the contenders to be Harris’ running mate. He called Harris “the leader we need to take our country into the future,” pointing to her commitments to lower child care costs, restore reproductive rights and reduce gun violence – an issue with added significance as he spoke alongside his wife, former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot at a constituent event in 2011.

Giffords also spoke briefly and reflected on being shot and her road to recovery in the years since, stressing the time it takes to bring change.

“Change doesn’t happen overnight, and we can’t do it alone. Join me. Let’s move ahead together,” Giffords said.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown told CNN on Friday that he has “no idea” what Donald Trump was talking about when the former president recounted a story about a helicopter emergency landing he allegedly experienced with Brown.

In a Thursday news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump was asked by a reporter about Vice President Kamala Harris’ previous relationship with Brown and whether it helped her career trajectory. Trump said he knew Brown “very well” and told a story about the alleged incident.

But Brown told CNN’s John Berman on Friday that he has never been in a helicopter with Trump.

A Trump campaign senior adviser on Friday pointed CNN to a story by The New York Times that noted that Trump had told the story before, in his 2023 book, “Letters to Trump,” which featured correspondence between himself and Brown.

The former president also claimed Thursday that Brown was “not a fan” of Harris and had told him “terrible things” about her. Asked Friday if he’d ever had a derogatory conversation about Harris with Trump, Brown told Berman, “No, I have not, nor anybody else.”

“You’ve got to know that she served California extremely well,” Brown said of Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival. “She defeated an incumbent district attorney in this city because the people loved her, and she performed very well.”

Trump doubled down on his claim Friday, a day after The New York Times reported that the former president had confused Willie Brown with former California Gov. Jerry Brown, with whom Trump toured wildfire damage by helicopter in November 2018.

Trump said on his Truth Social platform that he had not confused the two politicians

This post has been updated with additional comments from Donald Trump.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz take a selfie in front of a sign that reads "Kamala and The Coach" during a stop at a campaign office in Glendale, Arizona, on August 9.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz stopped by a campaign field office in Phoenix, Arizona, ahead of their rally tonight in Glendale.

The pair greeted staff members and volunteers. They shook hands, thanked volunteers for their time and complemented an assortment of signs that were being handmade.

The vice president and Walz took a selfie in front of a large “Kamala and Coach” sign before exiting the office. 

Donald Trump’s plane had a mechanical issue and was diverted on its way to Bozeman, Montana, for his fundraiser and rally, but landed safely in Billings, a source familiar with matter told CNN. Trump is currently en route to his fundraiser in Bozeman.

The former president posted an hour ago on Truth Social that he had landed in Montana but did not mention an issue with the plane.

Former President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that he has landed in Montana for a fundraiser and a campaign rally. 

Trump attacked Harris and again called her a “phony.” 

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gives a keynote speech during the Bitcoin 2024 conference at Music City Center in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 26.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged that media coverage around his revealing he placed a dead bear cub in New York City’s Central Park 10 years ago has hurt his presidential campaign while lambasting the media for covering the story instead of his “colorful personal life.”

Kennedy said in an interview with Fox News on Friday he does not believe the anecdote about the dead bear, which he shared in a video he posted to his social media last week, has been helpful for his campaign.

Kennedy said he’d rather focus on issues at the core of his campaign, like fighting government corruption, reducing US military influence and reimagining health care in the country.

“Those are the issues that I would prefer to talk about, rather than, you know, my colorful personal life,” he said.

Kennedy also addressed recent polling that suggests his campaign is failing to gain ground on former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, while acknowledging that some voters may feel voting for a third-party candidate with an unclear path to victory is riskier than backing one of the two major party candidates. When asked about how he plans to convince voters worried about wasting their vote to back him in November, Kennedy said he doesn’t know.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’m hoping that we figure out a way to counter it over the next three months.”

Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak at a campaign rally at UAW Local 900, on August 8, in Wayne, Michigan, with Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign launched a new TV ad Friday promoting her commitment to border security as the Democrat looks to shore up a perceived vulnerability on an issue that Republicans have emphasized in their attacks. 

Touting Harris as a former “border state prosecutor,” the ad is filled with images of border fencing and law enforcement, and contains the tag line, “Fixing the border is tough. So is Kamala Harris.”

The focus on immigration is a notable shift from earlier messaging that focused more on Harris’ biography and record, though it contains some similar elements, including reference to her law enforcement background as a former attorney general, which has been consistently emphasized.

The tough-talk on the border and the spotlight on Harris’ background are a response to sustained Republican criticism on the issues of immigration and crime, which have been dominant themes in GOP campaign advertising.

According to AdImpact data, nearly every ad run by Republicans in the presidential race over the last 30 days has referenced immigration, accounting for about $40 million for the $41 million total in TV advertising aired during that period. And about $19 million of that advertising has also referenced crime.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday criticized podcaster Joe Rogan after Rogan praised independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

“It will be interesting to see how loudly Joe Rogan gets BOOED the next time he enters the UFC Ring??? MAGA2024,” Trump posted on Truth Social. 

Rogan said Thursday on his podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” that Kennedy is “the only one that makes sense to me,” but later clarified that his praise did not amount to an endorsement.

Rogan later posted on X: “For the record, this isn’t an endorsement. This is me saying that I like RFKjr as a person, and I really appreciate the way he discusses things with civility and intelligence. I think we could use more of that in this world.”

Kennedy thanked Rogan for his comments.

A super PAC backing Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is seeking to block Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ballot access in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, arguing Kennedy’s campaign violates petition-collecting laws in the state. 

Clear Choice PAC, a group of Democrats combating ballot access for third parties, is supporting a challenge filed on Thursday by two voters asking a Pennsylvania judge to reject Kennedy’s ballot access, arguing his signatures show “a fundamental disregard of the circulation process and Pennsylvania law.” 

The group argues the formatting of the petitions Kennedy submitted to Pennsylvania’s elections office “show a concerted effort to cover up” his petition circulation process and argues there are “numerous” faulty signatures among those submitted by Kennedy. 

The group also argues that Kennedy intended to “deceive” Pennsylvania voters by listing a New York address as his residency despite living in Los Angeles. The residency question is also at the heart of Clear Choice’s objection to Kennedy’s ballot access in New York, which is currently being considered by a New York state court. 

Kennedy’s campaign submitted signatures for ballot access in June. The deadline for outside groups to file objections to independent candidate petitions was Thursday. 

Some background: The objection could trigger a review of the signature threshold for independent presidential candidates seeking to gain ballot access in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office has said it will accept nomination petitions containing 5,000 valid signatures in line with a 2018 court ruling on a minor party’s ballot access, despite Pennsylvania’s code of elections stipulating an independent candidate would need 33,043 signatures to qualify for November’s ballot. But the secretary’s office has offered guidance that an objection to an independent candidate’s petition could create an issue that “the state judiciary would need to resolve.” 

The court has not yet said whether it would consider the state’s signature threshold for independent candidates.

A hearing on the next steps in the federal election subversion case against former President Donald Trump will take place on September 5 after a trial judge on Friday granted an extension sought by special counsel Jack Smith.

The deadline for a status report that the parties were slated to file Friday has now been moved back to August 30, according to the new order from US District Judge Tanya Chutkan.  

Smith’s team on Thursday asked to push back the filing deadline and the hearing — originally scheduled for August 16 — because the prosecutors were continuing “to assess the new precedent set forth last month” by the Supreme Court in its immunity ruling. 

Trump did not oppose delaying the proceedings.

See where all the criminal cases against Trump stand.

Former President Donald Trump (L) and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is responding to former President Donald Trump’s stated reasoning for not hitting the campaign trail recently.

Trump said during a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Thursday that he hasn’t been campaigning because “I’m leading by a lot and I’m letting their convention go through.”

The latest polls show a tight race ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which starts on August 19.

In a statement, Harris-Walz 2024 spokesperson James Singer said:

“Donald Trump is too lazy to fight for anything but himself or leave his country club – fine by us,” the statement added.

Trump is scheduled to hold a rally tonight in Montana to boost GOP Senate candidate Tim Sheehy.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign has added three senior hires to its fundraising apparatus as it works to mobilize donors and build on early momentum that resulted in an influx of cash, according to two sources familiar with the matter. 

Kristin Bertolina Faust will be co-chair of the finance operation, joining Rufus Gifford, who has served as chair of the National Finance Committee since President Joe Biden was the candidate. Stephanie Daily Smith and Jen Liu will join in senior adviser roles. 

The addition of the three political consultants comes as the campaign works to bolster its West Coast outreach and capitalize on Harris’ own political network. 

Michael Pratt and Colleen Coffey will continue as co-directors of the finance operations.

CNN previously reported that the team was looking to expand its fundraising team.

Former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump brought out Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock to the Republican National Convention last month, while Megan Thee Stallion, George Clooney and Jennifer Aniston are among the stars who have voiced support for Vice President Kamala Harris in her White House bid.

But do election efforts by celebrities move the needle? Or is it all just hype?

A new study by Harvard University’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, shared exclusively with CNN, found that celebrities do play an influential role in promoting civic participation.

Harvard’s report does not examine celebrity endorsements to specific candidates or political parities, instead focusing on the role celebrities play in nonpartisan voter participation efforts, like educating, mobilizing and encouraging Americans to register to vote.

The researchers noted the power of social media, but also explored celebrity campaigns across mediums, including television, documentaries, merchandising and public service announcements. They looked at data from celebrity initiatives in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 election cycles, including efforts by Kerry Washington, Billie Eilish, Hailey Bieber, Trevor Noah, David Dobrik, Questlove and Taylor Swift.

Find out more about the Harvard study here.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp gives an interview inside the spin room during the 2024 CNN Presidential Debate in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 27.

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Friday reiterated he will support the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, in November despite “noise” and “distractions” after the former president recently revived their ongoing feud. 

Trump renewed his attacks on Kemp during a rally last weekend in Atlanta, calling the second-term governor “a disloyal guy” and blamed him for his 2020 defeat. During a news conference on Thursday, Trump also said of Kemp: “I’ve never understood it. When you get somebody elected, they’re supposed to like you.”

Speaking at radio host Erick Erickson’s “The Gathering” event, Kemp said his position remains unchanged on supporting Trump in November because it is in the “best interest” of the Republican Party.

While Kemp plans to vote for Trump in the general election, he previously revealed to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in June that he didn’t vote for Trump in Georgia’s GOP primary, because “the race was already over when the primary got here.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 26.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed ballot access petitions in Wisconsin and Washington, DC, according to elections offices in those states.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission announced on Tuesday that Kennedy had filed for ballot access in the state, without specifying how many signatures Kennedy submitted. Independent candidates are required to submit 2,000 valid signatures to qualify in the state.

The Washington, DC, Board of Elections shared on its website that Kennedy’s campaign filed for ballot access on Wednesday. It did not say how many signatures Kennedy’s campaign has submitted. Independent candidates are required to submit 4,573 valid signatures to qualify.

In total, Kennedy’s campaign has either gained ballot access, submitted signatures or completed signature collection in 46 states. Kennedy has repeatedly said he plans to be on the ballot in every state and Washington, DC. 

Kennedy has qualified for the ballot in 16 states. He’s eligible to receive 212 electoral college votes.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

Donald Trump, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are hitting the campaign trail today in different parts of the country.

Here’s where we expect to see them:

Harris and Walz: At 8 p.m. ET, the vice president and Minnesota governor will deliver remarks at a campaign event in Glendale, Arizona. It’s part of their campaign blitz over the next two days with stops in key battleground states to reach “diverse voters who power our victories,” the campaign team said. The duo will also slam former President Trump and “Project 2025’s agenda to drag voters in the past.” 

These visits come after Harris locked in key endorsements from leaders across the two states, including from mayors representing Arizona’s border communities and some Arizona Republicans after she announced her presidential bid. This will mark Harris’ fourth visit to Arizona this year.

Trump: At 10 p.m. ET, Trump will deliver remarks at a rally in Bozeman, Montana. He is expected to give Republicans a boost in one of the most competitive — and expensive — 2024 Senate races, in which GOP nominee Tim Sheehy, an entrepreneur and former Navy Seal, is looking to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester.

Sensing the stakes, both parties have poured money into the contest, spending tens of millions on early advertising and booking airtime in the coming months, making it the second most expensive Senate race of the cycle.

The Republican National Committee asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to revive parts of an Arizona law that requires documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in the state — including provisions that would require those documents to vote in the presidential election and to cast ballots by mail.

The request puts the spotlight on an issue that Republicans have wanted front and center in the 2024 campaign, despite the lack of evidence that non-citizen voting is a significant threat to elections.

Democrats and voting rights advocates say the requirement not only is unnecessary, but could disenfranchise people who don’t have easy access to documents like birth certificates that would prove their citizenship.

Republicans are seeking to renew parts of the law requiring proof of citizenship for Arizonans who register to vote using the state voter registration form. They are also seeking to restore a requirement for proof of citizenship to vote in a presidential election.

The complex way that Arizona crafted the proof of citizenship requirement in the 2022 voter law appears in part aimed at getting around a 2013 Supreme Court precedent that put limits on when states could impose such demands — particularly for those registering to vote using the federal registration form, which does not currently require documentary proof of citizenship.

The lower court orders blocking the provisions in the Arizona law, Republicans told the Supreme Court on Thursday, were “unprecedented abrogation” of the state lawmakers’ authority “to determine the qualifications of voters and structure participation in its elections.”

Keep reading about the details of the Republican request.

Former President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8, in Palm Beach, Florida.

Former President Donald Trump heads to Montana today to give Republicans a boost in one of the most competitive – and expensive – 2024 Senate races.

It’s one of just two Senate races where the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Jon Tester, is seeking reelection in a state Trump carried in 2020 (the other, Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio). Here, Republicans quickly coalesced around GOP nominee Tim Sheehy, an entrepreneur and former Navy Seal, avoiding an internecine primary.

Sensing the stakes, both parties have poured money into the contest, spending tens of millions on early advertising and booking airtime in the coming fall months, making it the second most expensive Senate race of the cycle.

Montana Senate race surges past $216 million in ad spending: According to AdImpact data, the race has drawn a total of more than $216 million in ad spending, including future reservations, trailing only Ohio, where both parties have combined to spend more than $322 million buying ad time. Democrats have outspent Republicans about $117 million to $98 million, counting all the Montana ad buys.

Of that total, $95 million has already aired, and Democrats have outspent Republicans by about $56 million to $39 million in the Montana race so far. About $121 million worth of advertising remains to air, and it’s split about evenly between the parties, Democrats with about $61 million in future reservations, and Republicans with about $60 million.

Cornel West speaks during a rally in Washington, DC, on February 21.

Independent presidential candidate Cornel West submitted signatures to qualify for the ballot in Wisconsin, a key battleground state in November’s presidential election. 

West’s campaign said in a news release it has “significantly exceeded” the 2,000 signatures needed to qualify for November’s ballot as an independent candidate in Wisconsin. The campaign did not say how many signatures it collected. 

The Wisconsin Election Commission said West’s campaign had submitted its signatures prior to Tuesday’s deadline for independent candidates to apply for ballot access. 

West’s signature gathering in Wisconsin continues a targeted effort by his campaign to gain ballot access in key battleground states that are most likely to determine the outcome of November’s election. West has also pursued ballot access in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska and Maine. 

West is currently on the ballot in five states: South Carolina, Alaska, Vermont, Oregon and Colorado.

Migrants sit by a makeshift fire to warm up after crossing into the US from Mexico on June 14, in Jacumba Hot Springs, California. The Trump campaign is using Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's immigration policies to attack Vice President Kamala Harris, who named Walz her running mate.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly named running mate is giving former President Donald Trump even more fodder to attack his Democratic rival as being weak on immigration — an issue that’s a top concern for many Americans in this presidential election.

The Trump campaign and Republicans are pointing to several laws that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed last year that open state services and benefits to undocumented immigrants as examples of the Harris-Walz campaign’s “radical left” policies.

Early in a news conference on Thursday, Trump slammed Walz on immigration, saying the governor doesn’t want to have borders or any form of safety for the US. His comments followed a video the GOP posted on X showing both Harris and Walz expressing support for sanctuary states and cities, with Walz saying that if the definition of a sanctuary state is that the federal government enforces immigration law and local law enforcement handles local laws, he agrees with it.

The Trump campaign will use Walz, who has implemented an array of progressive policies as governor, as a way to draw even starker contrasts between the candidates and to highlight her perceived vulnerability — that she’s a San Francisco liberal, said John Thomas, a Republican strategist.

Keep reading here about the GOP strategy on immigration.

Earlier this summer, Alejandra Gomez, executive director of Living United for Change (LUCHA) in Arizona, told CNN it would be difficult for her organization’s canvassers to talk to voters about the Biden administration’s immigration policies.

But now Gomez and the organizers in the pivotal battleground state are excited about Vice President Kamala Harris’ ascension to Democratic nominee for president and her selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. She describes her tapping Walz as “a significant political gesture to voters.”

In Minnesota, undocumented students who meet certain conditions are eligible for free college tuition at public two- or four-year colleges and other state financial aid awards. And last year, Walz signed a bill into law expanding eligibility for a standard driver’s license by allowing state residents, regardless of immigration status, to obtain a license.

The group was also “incredibly encouraged” by Biden’s executive action in June shielding undocumented spouses and children of citizens.

The group aims to knock on 1 million doors by November and has already reached 100,000.

The political arm of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket on Friday and leadership from the organization will join Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz during a campaign event in Nevada on Saturday, the PAC announced. 

LULAC, a civil rights organization dedicated to advancing opportunities for Hispanic Americans, was established in 1929. The PAC says that this is the first time LULAC has endorsed a presidential candidate in its almost 100-year history. The group describes itself as the nation’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization.

Harris is expected to hold a campaign stop in Las Vegas on Saturday alongside Walz, her running mate, and LULAC leadership.

The electoral landscape: Nevada has backed the Democrat for president in the past four elections, but the Biden-Harris ticket only won in 2020 by two points and its six electoral votes will be important to helping candidates reach 270 electoral votes. A Pew Research survey from earlier this years showed that Latinos make up 22% of the total eligible voter population in Nevada.

“The stakes of this election require Latinos to unify and organize together like our lives depend on it. That’s what this endorsement makes clear: the organizing power of LULAC Adelante PAC will help us elect Vice President Harris and Governor Walz to fight to deliver for Latinos and our families,” campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. 

Chris LaCivita speaks to reporters in Atlanta on June 27.

The Trump campaign’s attacks on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s military record are channeling the “swift boating” campaign 20 years ago against John Kerry, which accused the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee of lying about his Vietnam service and decorations.

LaCivita played a key role in the political advocacy group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which ran the TV ad campaign questioning Kerry’s military service. It’s a playbook that the Trump campaign appears to be re-running after Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Walz, a 24-year veteran of the Army National Guard, as her running mate.

Neither Harris nor Donald Trump ever served in the military. But Trump’s running mate – Ohio Sen. JD Vance, who is a Marine veteran – quickly zeroed-in on Walz’s military service, accusing him this week of abandoning his unit before it deployed to Iraq in 2006 and of falsely claiming he served in a war zone.

“When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him,” Vance said at a campaign stop Wednesday.

Here are the facts: Walz filed to run for Congress in February 2005 – before his unit was notified it could deploy to Iraq. He deployed with the Minnesota National Guard in August 2003 to Vicenza, Italy, as part of support for the US war in Afghanistan, according to a Minnesota Guard spokesperson, but not to a war zone.

The hits on Walz’s military service align with Trump’s penchant for personal attacks against his political opponents, while also harkening back to the effort to sully Kerry’s military record two decades ago.

Could this be effective? There are key differences. For one, Walz is the vice-presidential nominee and not at the top of the ticket, meaning the attempts to undermine his service may not go as far with voters as the attacks on Kerry, which leaned on his activities protesting the Vietnam war after he came home. Military service also played a much more central role in the 2004 campaign when President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq was a key campaign issue.

CNN has reached out to LaCivita for comment.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

President Joe Biden had banked on June’s presidential debate turning around a race that was slipping away from him.

Now, Donald Trump may be laying a similar bet after reversing himself by agreeing to debate on ABC next month as his new Democratic opponent enjoys surging momentum.

Trump clearly doesn’t believe he’ll suffer the kind of debacle that ended Biden’s campaign, but his decision — and call for another two debates on NBC and Fox, which Vice President Kamala Harris has not agreed to — tells an emerging truth about the election.

After a barnstorming week for Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Trump suddenly looks like old news — a crushing new experience for an ex-president who prides himself on driving the narrative.

The build-up to the debate on September 10, assuming it goes ahead, will be intense, and the truncated nature of the new campaign means it could create another historic pivot point on the dwindling road to the White House.

Read the full analysis.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz greet the crowd at a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, on Wednesday.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will continue their campaign blitz over the next two days with stops in key battleground states: Arizona and Nevada.

The Harris-Walz campaign said during the two-day swing through the Southwest, they will “continue our work to reach the diverse voters who power our victories in the Southwest, highlighting the stakes of the race for reproductive rights and the Vice President’s leadership to secure the border.”

The duo will also slam Donald Trump and “Project 2025’s agenda to drag voters in the past.” 

More on Harris’ campaign strategy: As Harris has become the Biden administration’s foremost voice on reproductive rights, both in public events and behind the scenes, the campaign is leaning heavily on the issue of women’s reproductive rights in hopes of mobilizing voters.

The campaign touted a robust ground game in the region with more than 25 coordinated campaign offices throughout Arizona and Nevada and more than 220 full-time staff. The campaign believes their infrastructure will allow them to court “two of the most diverse battlegrounds,” including young and Latino voters in those states.

These visits come after Harris locked in key endorsements from leaders across these two states, including from mayors representing Arizona’s border communities and some Arizona Republicans after she announced her presidential bid.

This will mark Harris’ seventh visit to Nevada and her fourth visit to Arizona this year.

Trump, meanwhile, is holding a rally tonight in Montana.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris will hold a joint event next week in Maryland to discuss lowering costs — marking their first formal appearance together since Biden dropped out of the race and Harris became the Democratic standard bearer.

They both attended a welcome ceremony last week for Americans wrongfully detained in Russia held at Joint Base Andrews, and Harris and Biden both attended a Situation Room meeting this week focused on the Middle East.

But they have not shared a stage together since Biden dropped his bid for a second term, making next week’s event a significant moment in the handing-of-the-torch.

The focus of the event, lowering costs, is one of the four pillars Biden plans to focus on during the remainder of his presidency. Aides say that could take the form of expanding student debt relief and continuing efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

How much Biden actually hits the campaign trail for Harris remains to be seen. He is most likely to appear in states like Pennsylvania, where he continues to appeal to voters.

The president will deliver an address on the first night of this month’s Democratic Convention in Chicago.

For the remainder of his term, Biden said he will devote much of his time to fulfilling his official duties, with a focus on foreign affairs.

Audience members cheer as Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz appear at a campaign rally at United Auto Workers Local 900 in Wayne, Michigan on August 8.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz rallied union members in a local union hall in Michigan on Thursday, working to drum up support amongst organized labor and draw a sharp contrast between the Democratic ticket and Donald Trump when it came to labor issues.  

In remarks focused on unity and community, Harris highlighted the strength and basic “fairness” of collective bargaining as she drew a throughline to how she believes it’s reflected in her campaign.

Harris has touted her support of unions in the past including walking the picket line with striking workers in 2019. She praised unions for their contributions. 

Walz, who was a union member as a teacher, thanked the auto workers for the “privilege” of joining their picket line last year, and sharply criticized the former president on labor issues.  

“We know that unions built the middle class,” he said, adding, “you know who doesn’t believe that? Donald Trump.” 

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain offered a warm welcome to the Democratic ticket, telling members that Harris and Walz are both “one of us.”

While Harris and Walz joined autoworkers on picket lines during their major strike last year, Fain noted Trump was “nowhere to be found,” and instead visited Detroit to go to a non-union business 

Remember: Last September, instead of participating in the second Republican presidential primary debate, Trump visited Drake Enterprises, a non-union auto parts supplier in Clint Township, to appeal to a group of current and former union workers.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is rushed offstage after an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13.

US security officials are on alert for possible retaliatory attacks against Democrats following the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, according to a new intelligence report obtained by CNN.

The threat assessment — prepared jointly by the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies, including local police in Illinois — outlines various potential security concerns surrounding the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Despite several conspiracy theories that appeared online after the attack blaming Democrats, there is no evidence the shooter was motivated by politics. A review of public records suggests he may have had divergent political leanings, and registered to vote as a Republican while also making a small donation to a Democratic-leaning group.

While the motive of the gunman who fired on Trump remains a mystery to investigators, the bulletin says “politically and socially divisive topics have prompted violence in the past,” and adds that some extremists “will view political and social tensions as an opportunity to use or promote violence to further their ideological goals.”

Read more about the DNC threat assessment.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida on August 08.

The Trump campaign is downplaying the significance of the Democratic Party reshuffling its ticket to elevate Vice President Kamala Harris replacing President Joe Biden, arguing that despite the change in the dynamics of the race, the “fundamentals” of the campaign have remained the same. 

Trump campaign officials told reporters on Thursday they believe Harris’ improvement over Biden in public polls can be attributed to “irrational exuberance,” arguing that Harris is making up ground with voters who supported Biden in 2020 but had moved away from Democrats before Harris moved to the top of the ticket. 

The official pushed back on Harris’ attacks on Trump’s presidential record, crystallized in the campaign’s new slogan, “We are not going back,” which Harris and her supporters have latched on to at recent campaign events. 

“When you ask voters whether they’d rather return to the Trump economy, or stay with the Biden economy, we win that two to one,” the official said.  

The official said the campaign’s internal data showed Harris has increased enthusiasm among Democratic voters and does better with undecided voters than Biden, but contended she still trails Trump in both voter motivation and popularity with undecided voters. Officials also said Harris was doing better among Black voters then President Joe Biden was, a demographic that Trump’s team has been heavily targeted this cycle.