October 16, 2024, presidential campaign news

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Pete Buttigieg speaks with CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that it is “disqualifying” for a candidate to not accept the results of an election after Sen. JD Vance said former President Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 presidential race.

“Joe Biden won. Donald Trump lost. And anybody who cannot bring themselves to say that out loud — just the way I, as much as it pains me, will say Donald Trump won and Hillary Clinton lost the election back in 2016 — if you can’t say that, that is literally disqualifying for the vice presidency or the presidency,” said Buttigieg, appearing on CNN’s “The Source” with Kaitlan Collins.

Buttigieg’s comments come after Vance said “no” Trump did not lose the 2020 election after being asked what message it sends to independent voters that he has not directly answered that question. Buttigieg — who spoke in his personal capacity but serves as transportation secretary in the Biden administration — told Collins that the Republican vice presidential nominee doing so is “a mistake politically.”

“Donald Trump lost, and I think (Vance) knows that. I think he’s lying,” Buttigieg said. “I also think it’s a mistake politically because voters have a dim view of election deniers. And up until now, he’s tried to avoid officially becoming an election denier … Now that he’s given a straight answer, he, JD Vance, is officially on the record as an election denier, something that is shameful.”

Buttigieg, a former presidential candidate, also argued that denying the 2020 election results could be a “setback” for the ticket, pointing to election deniers losing races in 2022.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, speaking at three fundraisers in the Washington, DC, area on Wednesday, emphasized the importance of voter turnout while slamming the policies and rhetoric of former President Donald Trump.

During remarks at the home of former US Ambassador to Romania Alfred Moses in the Georgetown neighborhood, Walz repeatedly condemned Trump’s language, including his comments targeting political opponents as “the enemy from within,” which he called “the reddest of all red lines.” He also expressed concern to the room of DC residents about Trump’s proposal to remove civil service protections for federal employees.

At the home of Rep. David Trone in Potomac, Maryland — where Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, former Rep. John Delaney and his wife, congressional candidate April Delaney were in attendance — Walz made reference to CNN’s reporting that Trump is expected to visit a McDonald’s restaurant in Pennsylvania this weekend where he will work the fry cooker. He said Trump “would be pretty funny” if he were a comedian and wasn’t campaigning on issues that Walz disagrees with, while attacking the former president for calling himself “the father of IVF” at a town hall Tuesday evening.

Walz urged attendees to focus on helping the campaign turn out supporters before Election Day. He repeatedly acknowledged that many voters are committed for Trump, and said the election could be decided by getting voters who don’t fully agree with Vice President Kamala Harris or haven’t previously voted to turn out in support for her.

Vice President Kamala Harris takes part in an interview on Fox News.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday said she will “follow the law” when pressed if she supports using taxpayer dollars to fund gender-affirming care for transgender inmates, including undocumented immigrants.

During an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier, Harris was asked about an ad released by the Trump campaign that features a 2019 clip of Harris saying she supports providing gender-affirming care to prisoners and detained migrants during an American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire.

When asked about her current stance, Harris said she would follow the law, while highlighting the Trump administration’s record on providing services for transgender people.

Harris was referencing a New York Times report that outlined the Bureau of Prisons provided gender-affirming services under the Trump administration. In response to the Trump campaign’s ad, Harris accused them of “throwing stones when you live in a glass house.”

Pressed again by Baier if she would advocate for using taxpayer dollars on “gender reassignment surgeries,” Harris repeated she “would follow the law, just as I think Donald Trump would say he did.”

“Like I said, I think he spent $20 million on those ads trying to create a sense of fear in the voters, because he actually has no plan in this election that is about focusing on the needs of the American people, whereas at $20 million on that ad – on an issue that, as it relates to the biggest issues that affect the American people, is really quite remote. And again, his policy was no different,” she added.

Sen. JD Vance speaks at a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Wednesday.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance praised the scandal-plagued Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson for his help in North Carolina responding to Hurricane Helene, but failed to answer if the Trump campaign still endorses his candidacy, as Robinson has slipped in the polls.

As CNN’s Michael Williams reported in the aftermath of Helene, Robinson claimed that “virtually every single aircraft currently running missions are privately owned. The few that aren’t are owned by states other than North Carolina,” which directly contradicted an a post from the North Carolina National Guard.

Remember: CNN’s K-File reported that Robinson made a series of inflammatory comments on a porn forum more than a decade ago, including referring to himself as a “black NAZI,” expressing support for reinstating slavery and saying he enjoyed watching transgender pornography. Robinson denied the posts were his and has since sued CNN.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris participated in several events on Wednesday as they sprint to Election Day.

With less than three weeks to go, there is still no clear leader in the presidential race, according to a new CNN Poll of Polls average of national polling.

Here’s a recap of what happened Wednesday.

Donald Trump:

Kamala Harris:

Other key headlines:

Trump legal troubles: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked the state’s Court of Appeals to reinstate six counts in the election subversion case against Trump and his co-defendants, including three specifically against the former president.

Another former president votes: Former President Jimmy Carter has cast his vote in the 2024 presidential election. Carter, the oldest living US president, cast his ballot by mail on Wednesday, according to spokesperson Matthew De Galan.

Georgia voting rule: A judge in Georgia has struck down a slate of controversial new election rules passed by Trump allies. Among the rules is one that would require county election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before certifying them.

An updated CNN Poll of Polls average of national polling, released Wednesday evening, continues to find no clear leader in the presidential race, with an average of 50% of likely voters supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and 49% backing former President Donald Trump.

Of the five surveys included in the average, two give Harris a slight edge over Trump, while three find an effectively deadlocked race.

The latest average includes a poll released Wednesday evening by Fox News which finds no clear leader in the presidential race nationally, with 50% of likely voters supporting Trump in a head-to-head matchup between the candidates, and 48% supporting Harris.

In the Fox poll, 8 in 10 registered voters backing Trump say their support is mostly for him, rather than against Harris, while a smaller 66% majority of registered voters backing Harris say they’re mostly voting for her rather than against Trump.

When voters were asked to describe in their own words the top issue or factor motivating their vote, the most common reasons among Harris supporters were dislike of the other candidate, protecting democracy and abortion; among Trump supporters, it was the economy, immigration, and the candidates’ characteristics.

Kamala Harris appears on Fox News on Wednesday.

Many Democrats steer clear of Fox News due to the hostile nature of the network’s news coverage and commentary. So why did Kamala Harris agree to sit down with Fox anchor Bret Baier for her first-ever formal interview with the right-wing outlet on Wednesday?

“It serves two purposes,” Harris spokesman Ian Sams told Vanity Fair’s “Inside the Hive” podcast ahead of the interview.

One, he cited Fox’s high ratings and said, “there are a lot of undecided voters who watch,” including some Democrats and independent voters,

The Fox audience “frankly often gets fed a bunch of crap,” Sams said, and Harris wants to make sure that they “get to hear from her directly.”

Sams said the Harris campaign has no illusions about Fox’s political bent; there is, he said, “an entire alternative reality that’s created every single day by Fox News” and other right-wing media outlets. But “getting our message out through Fox is an important piece of the puzzle,” he said. To that end, Harris’ running mate Tim Walz has appeared on “Fox News Sunday” for two weeks in a row.

Harris aides have drawn a contrast between her recent TV appearances and Donald Trump’s. Harris herself has been criticizing Trump for backing out of a “60 Minutes” interview and refusing to debate her again.

A judge in Georgia has struck down a slate of controversial new election rules passed by Donald Trump allies, including two that Democrats say would inject post-election “chaos” into the critical battleground state.

Among the rules Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cox said violated state law are two that would require county election officials to conduct a “reasonable inquiry” into election results before certifying them and allow them to “examine all election related documentation created during the conduct of elections prior to certification of results.”

Read more details here about the ruling

Vice President Kamala Harris said the president of the United States should be “willing to handle criticism” without saying they would “lock people up” in an attack on Donald Trump and comments the former president made earlier this week, suggesting using the military to handle what he called “the enemy from within” on Election Day.

“You and I both know that he has talked about turning the American military on the American people,” she told Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday.

“He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him. This is a democracy,” she said.

She said democracy is what is at stake and noted how many of Trump’s closest advisers during his presidency have come out against their former boss. Harris also repeated her assertions that Trump is “unstable.”

Kamala Harris speaks during an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.

Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Vice President Kamala Harris Wednesday what she would be “turning the page from,” referring to her campaign slogan.

She argued that she would turn the page “on rhetoric that people are frankly exhausted of.”

In the last decade, Harris said “we have been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump that has been designed and implemented to divide our country and have Americans literally point fingers at each other.”

Trump’s rhetoric “suggests that the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down,” instead of “who you lift up,” she said.

“The vast majority of us have more in common than what celebrates us,” she said.

Vice President Kamala Harris differentiated herself from President Joe Biden as well as her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, during her first interview with Fox News on Wednesday.

Baier had played clips of Harris in recent interviews where she said she couldn’t think of anything she would have done differently than Biden during the last four years. The comment was quickly seized upon by her Republican rivals and revealed the fine line the vice president must walk between being loyal to her boss and making the case to voters that she can usher in a new era in US politics.

Watch some of the interview below and Wolf Blitzer’s question for Stacey Abrams.

CNN’s Ebony Davis, Edward-Isaac Dovere and Kate Sullivan contributed reporting.

Former President Donald Trump answers a question during a Univision town hall event on in Doral, Florida, on Wednesday.

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday continued to downplay his role in the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 and claimed there was “nothing done wrong at all,” as he faces federal charges related to the riot.

A voter who said he was a Republican told Trump at a Univision town hall that he found some of Trump’s “action and maybe inaction” during his presidency “a little disturbing,” and said he wanted to “give you the opportunity to try to win back my vote.”

The voter pointed specifically to “what happened during January 6, and the fact that, you know, you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol.”

Trump, who faces federal charges over his role in the January 6 insurrection, claimed it was a “day of love” and that there was “nothing done wrong at all.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith that stem from Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election after he lost to Joe Biden resulting in the insurrection on January 6, 2021.

Trump again falsely claimed people who stormed the Capitol didn’t have guns.

“There were no guns down there,” he said. “We didn’t have guns. The others had guns, but we didn’t have guns. And when I say ‘we’ — these are people that walk down, this was a tiny percentage of the overall, which nobody sees and nobody, nobody shows. But that was a day of love.”

Trump has to this day refused to concede he lost the 2020 presidential election and has throughout this 2024 campaign continued to falsely claim it was “rigged.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday started off with a testy back and forth about immigration.

She repeatedly pivoted to the bipartisan border security bill blocked by the GOP when pressed on the Biden administration’s handling of the US-Mexico border, taking a more hawkish stance while remaining vague on some of her previously held positions in a contentious interview.

Baier asked Harris if she felt like she owed the family of three women who were killed by immigrants an apology.

“Let me just say, first of all, those are tragic cases,” Harris said.

Before that, Harris and Baier went back and forth with Harris arguing that the Fox anchor was not letting her finish answering the question.

After she was asked how many illegal immigrants the Biden administration released into the country, Harris said shortly after being inaugurated, they moved a “bill to fix our immigration system.” Baier was pressing Harris on lines of GOP attack, like the Biden administration’s decision early on to repeal Trump-era policies.

Republicans have hammered the Biden administration for record border crossings over the last three years, casting blame on Harris, who’s been falsely labeled the “border czar.” Homeland Security officials have acknowledged that record migration in the Western Hemisphere — in part fueled by the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic — presented a steep challenge that strained an outdated immigration system.

“We recognized from day one that — to the point of this being your first question — it is a priority for us as a nation and for the American people,” she said, pointing to actions such as tightening penalties and increasing penalties for illegal crossings.

Harris also emphasized that the Biden administration came up with a bipartisan border plan — which she attacked Donald Trump for killing it to use it as a campaign issue. She added that the American people want solutions “and they want a president of the United States who is not playing political games with the issue.”

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed reporting to this post, which also was updated with more details and background on the immigration issue.

A patient prepares to take Mifepristone at a clinic in Carbondale, Illinois, on April 9.

As abortion access is a major flashpoint in the upcoming presidential election, three conservative states are kicking off another legal fight against the abortion drug mifepristone with a new lawsuit. It comes four months after the Supreme Court tossed out a high-profile challenge to the abortion drug.

The states — Missouri, Kansas and Idaho — filed an amended suit in a federal court in Texas asking US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk to roll back efforts the Food and Drug Administration has taken over the past eight years to ease access to the drug.

The suit may thrust the issue of mifepristone access back on track for Supreme Court review in the next presidential administration, once again threatening the widespread availability of the drug at a time when roughly half of states have imposed severe restrictions on in-clinic abortions.

The claim that mifepristone is unsafe has been widely refuted by mainstream medical organizations. Medication abortions account for nearly two-thirds of all abortions in the US.

The new lawsuit was filed Friday. In addition to the ability to dispense the drug through the mail, the states are also challenging the FDA’s approval of a generic version of the drug and the elimination of a requirement for follow-up doctor visits and a requirement that prescribers be physicians.

What happened last time: The attempt at a legal do-over is a result of the technical ruling the Supreme Court handed down earlier this year. A unanimous court ruled in June that the doctors and anti-abortion groups who had filed the original lawsuit were not injured by the greater access to the drug the FDA’s changes allowed and so they did not have standing to sue.

Vance speaks in front of the Minneapolis police department's 3rd precinct on October 14.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, attempting to explain Trump’s fight “the enemy within” remark, said that the former president was suggesting using military force if rioting breaks out after the 2024 election.

Vance brought up the riots that broke out after the death of George Floyd in 2020 as an example but did not mention the unrest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

On Monday in Minneapolis, Vance said it would be a justifiable use of military force “if they’re rioting and looting and burning cities down to the ground,” but would depend on “what’s actually happening.”

“I think the question is, is it a justifiable use of assets, depends on what’s actually happening,” Vance told reporters in Minneapolis.

Here’s what Trump said: “I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical left lunatics,” he told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo in an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“I think it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen,” he added.

Fox News hosted an all-women town hall with former President Donald Trump, billed as an opportunity for female voters to ask the Republican candidate questions that matter to them. But the network did not disclose that the audience it selected was packed with local Republican supporters of Trump and Fox News edited its broadcast to remove some of their vocal advocacy of the former president.

The Georgia Federation of Republican Women wrote on its Facebook page Wednesday that the group helped host the event, posting photos from the venue and writing they were “Super excited for the opportunity of hosting this event right here in Georgia!”

Shortly after CNN reached out to the group and Fox News about their role, the post was edited to state they were “excited for the opportunity of attending this event right here in Georgia!”

Republican Women of Forsyth County also posted a video from the event showing attendees chatting with Trump and Fox News host Harris Faulkner.

A Fox News spokesperson told CNN the event was not hosted by any Republican group and that it was the network’s event alone. The local Republican groups did not respond to CNN requests for comment Wednesday.

Read more details here about the town hall

Sen. JD Vance speaks during a campaign event in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, October 16.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said “no” former President Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 election, “not by the words” that he would use, when asked what message it sends to independent voters that he has not directly answered that question.

Vance said he cares more about what happened with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in leadership over the past three and half years and is focused back on the issues facing Pennsylvania voters.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign event with supportive Republicans at Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania on October 16.

Vice President Kamala Harris called Donald Trump “increasingly unstable and unhinged” Wednesday, as she invoked those who have previously worked for the former president and no longer support him.

She noted how many of Trump’s closest advisers during his presidency have come out against their former boss, She mentioned, in particular, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, who reportedly told journalist Bob Woodward that he believes his old boss is a “fascist.”

Harris added that America must heed Milley’s warning “because anyone who tramples on our democratic values as Donald Trump has, anyone who has called for the, quote, termination of the Constitution of the United States as Donald Trump has, must never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States.”

The Democratic presidential nominee then made an appeal to voters in the battleground state, saying, “If you share that view, no matter your party, no matter who you voted for last time, there is a place for you in this campaign.”

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated his false claim that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating their neighbors’ pets, using a town hall with undecided Latino voters to prop up misinformation that has been rejected by local and statewide leaders from both parties.

Asked by an audience member if he truly believed the story, Trump insisted he was only “saying what was reported.”

“All I do is report,” Trump said, not sharing his sources other than to name “newspapers.” The former president also – again without any evidence — said the migrant community is “eating other things too that they’re not supposed to be.”

His latest incendiary remarks came during a Univision forum in Florida moderated by Mexican journalist Enrique Acevedo. Trump has made inroads with Hispanic voters, but Vice President Kamala Harris still has an advantage — albeit slimmer than Joe Biden’s in 2020 — with that demographic.

Harris, who appeared at her own Univision town hall last week, has repeatedly ripped Trump over the claims about Haitians, saying at a discussion hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists in September that the former president is “spewing lies grounded in tropes.”

The right-wing misinformation about Haitian people now living in Springfield — legally under Temporary Protected Status — has become a staple of Trump’s dark and often misleading message on immigration. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has also doubled and tripled down on the conspiracy theories — over the objections of his home state’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, along with the city’s mayor and police chief.

Read more about what Trump said.

Former President Donald Trump and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked the state’s Court of Appeals to reinstate six counts in the election subversion case against Donald Trump and his co-defendants, including three specifically against the former president.

The court filing brings the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, and the effort to overturn his election defeat, back into the spotlight as early voting begins in Georgia in the 2024 election.

In March, Judge Scott McAfee ruled that six charges in the 41-count indictment related to Trump and some co-defendants over the alleged solicitation of the violation of oath by a public officer lacked the required detail about what underlying crime the defendants were soliciting.

The counts relate to Trump and his co-defendants’ alleged efforts to have state officials appoint a fake slate of electors for the state following his loss in the 2020 election.

In his March decision, McAfee wrote that Willis failed to give the defendants “enough information” to prepare their defenses.

Despite throwing out the charges, McAfee said the alleged conduct that was the foundation of that charge could still be used by prosecutors as part of the Georgia racketeering case.

Willis on Tuesday responded, arguing to the appeals court that the indictment against Trump and others had plenty of information that would allow defendants to sufficiently prepare for their case.

Separately, the Georgia appeals court is also considering an effort from Trump and his co-defendants to disqualify Willis from prosecuting her 2020 election subversion case because of alleged conflicts from her romantic relationship with her former special prosecutor.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Read more about Trump’s criminal cases here.

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday was confronted by a farmer at a Univision town hall about the potential effects of the mass deportations of undocumented immigrants Trump has vowed to carry out if reelected.

Trump was asked, “For many years, I have worked with these hands hunched over picking strawberries and cutting broccoli. This tough job is mainly done by undocumented people. If you deport these people, who would do that job, and what price would we pay for food?”

The former president argued “farmers are doing very badly right now” and said Hispanic and African Americans are “losing jobs now because millions of people are coming in.” He again claimed undocumented immigrants coming across the border are “murderers, drug dealers, terrorists.”

“We want workers, and we want them to come in, but they have to come in legally. They have to love our country. They have to love you, love our people,” Trump said.

Trump later dodged a question from another voter about why he helped torpedo a bipartisan border bill that included measures that would’ve amounted to some of the most significant changes in US immigration policy in decades.

“We had the strongest border we’ve ever had in the history, recorded history of our country. We had four years ago, we had a border that was great. And again, people were coming in, but they were coming in through a legal process,” Trump said.

The town hall with Latino voters, which was taped earlier today, will air on Univision tonight at 10 p.m. ET.

In this January 2023 photo, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen speaks during the inauguration ceremony on the steps of the Alabama State Capital in Montgomery, Alabama.

A federal judge ordered Alabama’s Republican secretary of state on Wednesday to reverse a program that purged more than 3,000 names from the state’s voter rolls, agreeing with the Biden administration’s argument that the purge took place too close to the election.

Manasco, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, added that Allen “admitted” that his purge program “included thousands of United States citizens (in addition to far fewer noncitizens, who are ineligible to vote).” He also said the secretary of state referred all of the individuals to the state’s attorney general for criminal investigation.

The ruling is a major victory for the US Justice Department and several voters in the state who sued Allen last month, alleging he unlawfully removed 3,251 names from the state’s registration lists. It comes as Republicans continue to make noncitizen voting a major issue ahead of the 2024 election, even though voting in US elections by noncitizens is illegal and exceedingly rare.

Manasco said the injunction will expire after the 2024 election.

CNN has reached out to Allen’s office for comment.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre on October 15 in Atlanta.

A new Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday afternoon finds likely voters in battleground North Carolina closely split between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, with 49% backing Harris and 47% backing Trump. In the key swing state of Georgia, Quinnipiac finds Trump leading Harris, 52% to 45%.

Although recent polling has been relatively sparse in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which affected parts of both states, Quinnipiac’s polling in Georgia this fall has consistently shown wider margins for Trump than other pollsters have found.

More about the polls: Trump has led Harris by margins of four to seven points in all three Quinnipiac polls of Georgia released since the beginning of September, while other surveys over that time have shown a closer race. Surveys of the presidential race in North Carolina —including those conducted by both Quinnipiac and other pollsters —have consistently found a very tight race in the state.

CNN Poll of Polls averages of presidential election polling in Georgia and North Carolina find no clear leader in either state. In Georgia, Trump averages 50% support to Harris’ 48% among likely voters. In North Carolina, Trump takes an average 49% to Harris’ 48% among likely voters. Both averages are unchanged from earlier this month.

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he thought Vice President Kamala Harris “seems to have a nice way about her” and “does seem to be a survivor,” when asked at a town hall with Latino voters about what virtues he sees in his opponent.

Trump was asked by a voter at a Univision town hall in Miami what three virtues he saw in Harris, and he initially briefly paused and said, “That’s a very hard question. That’s the toughest question. The other ones are easy.”

“Look, I’m not a fan. I’m not a fan. I think she’s harmed our country horribly, horribly at the border, with inflation, with so many other things,” Trump started off in his response.

Trump also said, “And she seems to have a nice way about her. I mean, I like the way, you know, some of her statements, some of her, the way she behaves, in a certain way, but in another way, I think it’s very bad for our country, very bad for our country.”

“But she does seem to have some relationships that be lasting, and she does seem to be a survivor,” Trump said.

The town hall, which was taped earlier today, will air on Univision tonight at 10 p.m. ET.

Overall, since President Joe Biden withdrew from the race and Vice President Kamala Harris became the nominee, Democrats have outspent Republicans on advertising by a wide margin, $921 million to $569 million.

A significant part of Democrats’ overall edge is their advantage in both national advertising and digital advertising — Harris and her allies have outspent the GOP by more than $50 million by each metric (some digital advertising is national, some national advertising is digital, but not all digital ads run nationally, and not all national ads run digitally).

In the key battleground states, the advertising contest has been closer, and Republicans are poised to seize the edge on the airwaves in a few critical states in the closing weeks of the race.

Here’s a look at some key takeaways on ad spending:

Former President Donald Trump attends a Fox News Town Hall moderated by Harris Faulkner in Cumming, Georgia, on October 15.

Former President Donald Trump, who trails with women in recent national polls, participated in a Fox News town hall event on Tuesday in front of a female audience.

The Republican presidential nominee made at least 19 false claims in the one-hour event that aired Wednesday morning.

Here is a fact check on a few of the false claims Trump made:

Opinions on Roe v. Wade: Trump repeated his false claim that “everybody” wanted the Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision overturned and the power to set abortion policy left to individual states. Trump added, “Nobody wanted it to be in the federal government.”

It’s not even close to true that “everybody” wanted Roe overturned or that “the Democrats” did. A large majority of Americans and an overwhelming majority of Democrats wanted the Supreme Court to preserve Roe in 2022, according to numerous polls. Democratic support for Roe exceeded 80% in many polls and 90% in some polls.

Trump and in vitro fertilization (IVF): Trump declared that he is entirely in favor of IVF. But Trump also falsely claimed, “I’m the father of IVF.” The first child conceived through IVF was born in 1978; Trump, clearly, had nothing to do with it, and he said in this same town hall answer that he only recently had IVF explained to him by a Republican senator.

Harris’ border role: Trump, criticizing his election opponent Vice President Kamala Harris, repeated his false claim that President Joe Biden “made her border czar.” Biden never made Harris “border czar,” a label the White House has always emphasized is inaccurate. In reality, Biden gave Harris a more limited immigration-related assignment in 2021, asking her to lead diplomacy with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in an attempt to address the conditions that prompted their citizens to try to migrate to the United States.

Continue reading more on this fact check.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the media before boarding Air Force Two at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Michigan on October 16.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday railed against former President Donald Trump for suggesting he is the “father of IVF.” Trump made the comments during a Fox News town hall with an all-women audience.

She continued, “What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working toward growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk.”

Though it’s unclear what the former president meant when he made the comment, the event he was speaking at on Tuesday was billed as focusing on women’s issues. Trump has repeatedly talked up his support for in-vitro fertilization on the campaign trail, where he has given a series of confusing or contradictory answers about his stance on abortion.

The vice president urged people to “not be distracted” by Trump’s choice of words. “The reality is his actions have been harmful to women and families on this issue,” Harris said.

Watch the moment here:

Video Ad Feedback

'Bizarre': Harris rails against Trump's 'father of IVF' comment

01:11 - Source: CNN

After graduating from high school in 2017, N’Dea Gordon entered the workforce. Deterred by the high cost of college and the prospect of thousands of dollars in student loans, her plan was to work her way up in the service industry, get promotions and gain skills that could help her build a career.

But years went by, and the wages didn’t go up, leaving her with only one option: She had to go back to school and hope the investment would pay off.

Gordon, 25, lives in Columbus, Ohio, and is in her first year of a cybersecurity program at Western Governors University, an online school. She said the economy is the issue that is most important to her this election and is a main factor in how she will vote.

As a student, she feels the pinch of rising food prices and the cost of housing and rent, which she said have gone up an “exorbitant amount” for her in the past year. She has been struggling to find even a studio apartment she can afford, she said.

Gordon said she also wants to see more transparency in job creation. When politicians say they are creating jobs, she wants to know what the barrier to entry is for those positions, adding that she hopes to see a wide range of jobs for people with different skill levels.

How other young voters are weighing the issue of the economy:

Former President Jimmy Carter departs after the funeral service for former first lady Rosalynn Carter at Maranatha Baptist Church on November 29, 2023, in Plains, Georgia.

Former President Jimmy Carter has cast his vote in the 2024 presidential election, a spokesperson for the Carter Center confirms to CNN.

Carter, the oldest living US president, cast his ballot by mail on Wednesday, according to spokesperson Matthew De Galan.

In August, Carter’s grandson said the former president was hoping to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during the November elections.

“I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” the 99-year-old former president said, according to his grandson, Jason Carter, who relayed a conversation Carter had with his son Chip to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

More on the former president: Carter, who turned 100 on October 1, entered hospice care in February 2023 after a series of hospital stays. Jason Carter said in May the 39th president is “coming to an end” when providing an update on his health.

Carter, a Democrat and one-term president, is a survivor of metastatic brain cancer and liver cancer and underwent a brain surgery after a fall in 2019. The former president is widely revered for his championing of human rights and brokering the Camp David Accords in 1978 between Egypt and Israel.

This post has been updated with more background.

CNN’s Joe Sutton and Kaanita Iyer contributed reporting to this post.

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk speaks as Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump looks on during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on October 5.

Elon Musk says he’ll be “giving a series of talks throughout Pennsylvania” from Wednesday through Monday to promote former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

Pennsylvania is a critical battleground state and Musk is an ardent Trump supporter who has given nearly $75 million to a pro-Trump super PAC, according to new FEC filings.

Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on a recently unsealed indictment including four felony counts against former President Donald Trump on August 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. 

Special counsel Jack Smith urged a federal judge to ignore former President Donald Trump’s claims of presidential immunity, calling them “deeply flawed” and “irrelevant” to the issue at hand and should wait to be argued in separate filings.

Trump has been charged with multiple counts related to his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction.

Smith also told the judge on Wednesday that the Supreme Court’s decision limiting some obstruction charges against those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, should not apply to Trump in the election subversion case against the former president.

One primary reason the obstruction charge against Trump should stand, prosecutors argue, is that – unlike in the case involving a rioter that was before the Supreme Court – Trump is directly accused of creating false evidence though the plot to insert fake electors in the certification process.

Additionally, the special counsel said in a court filing, Trump’s pressure campaign against then-Vice President Mike Pence and other legislators to certify fraudulent electoral college votes “link the defendant’s actions on January 6 directly to his efforts to corruptly obstruct the certification proceeding.”

Remember: Earlier this year, the Supreme Court found that obstruction charges brought by prosecutors against many alleged rioters could not stand unless the individual obstructed the Electoral College certification proceeding by impairing physical documents and other similar and direct acts of obstruction.

Trump is arguing the ruling should result in Judge Tanya Chutkan throwing out the case against him.

“The defendant’s supplement ignores entirely that the superseding indictment includes allegations that involve the creation of false evidence,” prosecutors wrote Wednesday, namely, “the fraudulent electoral certificates.”

The Harris-Walz campaign on Wednesday held a news conference in Florida, featuring several children who came to the United States from Central America and were forcibly separated from their parents under the Trump administration, ahead of the former President Donald Trump’s Univision town hall with Latino voters on Univision.

“As a nine-year-old, you can probably imagine how that felt — great sadness in front of me, and very traumatic, something that I still hold to this day. The emptiness that I felt when I, when they told me that I wasn’t going to be able to be able to see my family again was something out of this world, and something that no kids should go through,” he said, adding that he was separated from his father for 40 days.

Billy added, “I still have the fear of Trump being reelected, and that same thing happening to me or other kids ever again.”

Thirteen-year-old Adriana spoke of how she and her mother were separated. “I started crying. Me and mama started crying because we thought we were never gonna see each other again.”

More background: In 2018, the Trump administration’s so-called “zero tolerance” policy criminally prosecuted adults illegally crossing the border — resulting in adults being sent to jail while their children were sent to detention centers run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Kevin Munoz, the senior spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign, said that during the town hall with Latino voters in Doral, Trump “will pretend he cares about our families, but the stories you will hear today remind you just how far from the truth that is.”

“If Trump gets the chance again, he will be more dangerous,” Munoz said.

For privacy reasons, the campaign did not provide the last names or the countries of birth of the children who spoke.

When former President Donald Trump was challenged at a Tuesday event about the potential economic harms of his proposal for across-the-board tariffs on imported goods, Trump told what sounded like a tariff success story.

He said that in response to his threat to impose hefty tariffs on John Deere if the storied American farm equipment maker went ahead with a plan to move some production from the US to Mexico, the company had just announced it was likely abandoning that outsourcing plan.

Here’s what Trump said: “Are you ready? John Deere, great company. They announced about a year ago they’re gonna build big plants outside of the United States. Right? They’re going to build them in Mexico … I said, ‘If John Deere builds those plants, they’re not selling anything into the United States.’ They just announced yesterday they’re probably not going to build the plants, OK? I kept the jobs here.”

Fact check: But a search of news articles and corporate press releases showed nothing about any such John Deere announcement the day prior. And in response to Trump’s story, a John Deere spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News that it had not changed its plans or announced any such changes.

The Trump campaign did not respond to a CNN request for any evidence for the former president’s story.

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday was interviewed by Bloomberg at the Economic Club of Chicago, where he once again touted historic tariffs as a way to grow America’s manufacturing sector by making foreign countries foot the bill.

But, given the economy’s central importance in the 2024 race, it’s worth hammering on an Econ 101 fact: Tariffs are a tax on Americans.

Trouble is, a lot of people don’t seem to get this — including Trump, who, CNN has reported, has falsely and repeatedly claimed that China would pay for tariffs he imposes.

It’s just not how trade works — not now, not ever.

Very simply: When the US government decides to put a tariff (read: tax) on, say, Chinese goods, the actual money going to the US Treasury comes from the American company doing the importing. And for that company to stay in business, it needs to make up that cost somewhere else, and that typically means raising prices on its consumers.

Rep. Anthony D'Esposito, Rep. Mike Lawler and Rep. Marc Molinaro.

In the fight for control of the House this fall, a trio of New York Republican lawmakers are pitching themselves as moderates willing to stand up to their own party as they aim to prove their wins in Democratic-leaning districts two years ago were not a fluke.

GOP Reps. Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro and Anthony D’Esposito framed themselves in recent conversations with CNN as moderate and bipartisan, exposing the metrics with which the new battleground taking shape in the Empire State are measured: a race for the middle.

But it’s a tightrope. The three freshmen lawmakers support former President Donald Trump in districts President Joe Biden won in 2020. Their first terms have been defined by a historically unproductive Congress. And they’ve at times embraced the right-wing rhetoric of their party, particularly when it comes to immigration and border security.

It’s here in New York, particularly in the suburbs of central New York, the Hudson Valley and Long Island, where the balance of power for the House of Representatives will likely be decided, and it’s through these competitive races where red cracks in the state’s reputation as a blue fortress are becoming more exposed.

Read the full story.

President Joe Biden acknowledged on Tuesday that Kamala Harris wouldn’t act as a carbon copy of his own administration, tacitly nodding to a key challenge his vice president faces as she enters the final sprint of her campaign: How to distinguish herself from his record.

Delivered during what has become a rare campaign stop for the incumbent, Biden said Harris’ loyalty to him — up to now — doesn’t mean she won’t forge her own way going ahead.

“Donald Trump’s perspective,” he added, “is old and failed and quite frankly thoroughly totally dishonest.”

The comments highlight part of the balancing act Biden and Harris are each trying to strike as she faces some pressure to distinguish herself from the current president.

After declaring in September he would be “on the road” from Labor Day onward, Biden’s campaign schedule this fall has been conspicuously light — hampered, in part, by a string of urgent domestic and foreign crises requiring his attention, but also complicated by the sense that his presence on the trail could remind voters of the page Harris is trying to turn.

The event on Tuesday — a ticketed dinner to raise money for Philadelphia Democrats — was one of the few political appearances the president has made since Harris secured the Democratic nomination.

“I’m one of the few people in American history who has been vice president and president,” Biden said as he stood before signs bearing the name “Kamala.”

“And I know both jobs, what they take and I can tell you, Kamala Harris has been a great vice president. She’ll be a great president as well,” he said.

Less than three weeks until the election, the campaign and White House have yet to detail what Biden’s campaign schedule will look like in the lead up to November 5. One deployment under consideration, a source close to the campaign said, is a tour through Pennsylvania with the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro. Biden himself previewed such a swing weeks ago in an interview.

Read more about Biden’s role in campaigning for Harris ahead of Election Day.

Donald Trump is trying to bob and weave his way back to power while Kamala Harris is finally daring to ditch the script as Democrats fret about her campaign.

The Republican and Democratic nominees on Tuesday offered voters an unusually self-reflective glimpse into their characters as they pursued dwindling bands of undecided voters in their neck-and-neck race that’s coming down to the wire.

Trump, fresh off a bizarre half-hour at a town hall on Monday when he danced on stage to his campaign soundtrack, made a clumsy attempt to repair his damaged standing among female voters. “I’m the father of IVF,” said the former president whose conservative Supreme Court majority unleashed chaos in reproductive health care.

And in a testy appearance at the Economic Club of Chicago, he made a virtue of his frequent incoherence, styling it as a sophisticated “weave” of multiple ideas that only a political genius would attempt. And he tried a fresh reinvention of history over his attempt to steal the 2020 election, declaring that his crowd in Washington on January 6, 2021, was infused with “love and peace.”

Harris also sought a second chance among a key voting bloc that is cool on her campaign. As she seeks to become the first Black woman president, she courted Black male voters who were last week rebuked by former President Barack Obama for flirting with Trump.

In an interview with radio host Charlamagne Tha God, the vice president further sharpened her attacks on her rival, branding him as “weak” because he cozies up to dictators and agreeing with the host that his political creed equated to “fascism.”

Read the full analysis.

Some of the world’s wealthiest figures – led by conservative donor Miriam Adelson and tech billionaire Elon Musk – have funneled tens of millions of dollars into political groups in recent months to boost Donald Trump’s White House bid, new reports filed Tuesday with federal regulators show.

Musk, the world’s richest person, gave nearly $75 million to a pro-Trump super PAC that he helped form over the summer – a massive cash infusion aimed at helping turn out voters in key battleground states.

Adelson, a staunch Trump backer and heir to a casino fortune, gave even more, plowing $95 million into another outside group backing the former president, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission covering the three months ended September 30.

Altogether, just three billionaires – Musk, Adelson and Midwestern packaging magnate Richard Uihlein – donated roughly $220 million in a three-month period to groups backing the Republican’s candidacy.

Their staggering donations underscore the crucial role that a handful of billionaire megadonors are playing in Trump’s efforts to edge past his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, as their race has intensified.

Read the full story.

It is another busy day on the campaign trail, with the candidates criss-crossing multiple states as they race to make their final pitches to voters with just 20 days until Election Day.

Kamala Harris: The vice president will sit down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier on Wednesday for her first-ever interview on the right-wing cable network. The interview with the Democratic presidential nominee will take place in Pennsylvania and air during the “Special Report with Bret Baier” at 6 p.m. ET, the network said Monday.

Harris will also campaign in Bucks County, Pennsylvania today, focusing on patriotism and unity. The vice president will be joined by more than 100 Republicans supporting her over the former president in a bipartisan effort to prioritize country over party ahead of Election Day.

Donald Trump: Earlier today, Fox News aired a pre-taped town hall with the former president from Cumming, Georgia. The event was hosted by Harris Faulkner for “The Faulkner Focus” before an audience of all women and focused on “issues impacting women ahead of the election and news of the day,” the network said.

Later on Wednesday, Trump will participate in a town hall moderated by Univision in Miami as the former president looks to court Latino Voters. This was previously postponed due to the impact of Hurricane Milton in Florida the week prior. Harris participated in a Univision town hall last week.

Gov. Tim Walz: The Democratic vice presidential candidate will deliver remarks at a series of campaign receptions in the Washington, DC, area.

Sen. JD Vance: The Republican vice presidential candidate will deliver remarks at a campaign event in Scranton, Pennslyvania, on Wednesday before holding a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Former President Donald Trump shakes hands with Faith and Freedom Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed prior to speaking at the organization's annual Road to Majority conference in Washington, DC, on June 22.

The leader of a powerful conservative evangelical political advocacy group — Ralph Reed of the Faith & Freedom Coalition — told CNN’s Kasie Hunt in an exclusive interview that he’s “very comfortable” with Donald Trump’s position on abortion and the former president’s recent comments declaring himself the “father of IVF.”

Pressed on Trump ultimately declaring he would veto a federal abortion ban earlier this month after waffling on the question, the Faith & Freedom Coalition chair pointed to the political challenges of passing such legislation in the first place.

“In terms of the national abortion law, we certainly favor that and we would wish that any president would sign it, but the reality is you need 60 votes in the Senate,” Reed said. “And that’s not likely to happen in the short-term.”

Reed labeled Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ abortion agenda “radical” and “extreme” — claiming that she wants to go beyond Roe v. Wade and provide taxpayer-funded abortions with no restrictions.

“For these voters of faith, Kasie, the contrast could not be sharper, could not be more dramatic and that’s why I think they’re coming and they’re going to come in record numbers,” he said.

Two critical battleground states are kicking off early in-person voting this week. Georgia already saw a record number of early voters on Tuesday and people in North Carolina will have the option to cast their ballots early starting Thursday.

But, between a flurry of legislative changes and the fallout from Hurricane Helene, the experience could look different for many voters in the coming weeks.

Here’s what to know about how voting and elections will work in Georgia and North Carolina.

Georgia:

North Carolina:

Michelle Obama speaks at the DNC on August 20, 2024.

Former first lady Michelle Obama will headline a rally aimed at boosting voter turnout in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 29, marking one of her first public efforts on the campaign trail this election cycle.

The event is being coordinated through “When We All Vote,” a non-partisan organization Obama started in 2018 to work on voter engagement, and is geared towards mobilizing first-time voters, including college and high school students, in this election. It is taking place just before the end of early voting in Georgia on November 1.

It comes months after Obama’s high-profile speech at the Democratic National Convention when she encouraged voters to “to do something” in this election as she made the case for electing Vice President Kamala Harris.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at Erie Insurance Arena, in Erie, Pennsylvania, on October 14.

Vice President Kamala Harris will campaign in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, today where she will center her remarks on patriotism, uniting the nation and upholding the Constitution as she continues to draw a contrast with Donald Trump, according to a campaign official.

Harris will be joined by more than 100 Republicans who are backing her candidacy over the former president, in a bipartisan effort to call for putting country above party ahead of Election Day.

According to the campaign, in her remarks, the vice president plans to blast Trump for refusing to engage in the peaceful transfer of power in 2020 and previously calling for the termination of the Constitution to overturn the election. She will also warn of the threat a second Trump term poses as she again slams her rival for his comment that the US military should handle “the enemy from within.”

Harris, the official said, will urge Republicans who have democratic values to rally behind her in an effort to move past Trump’s chaos.

The event, the campaign noted, will take place in Washington Crossing, at a location not far from where George Washington and troops crossed the Delaware River in 1776, which marked a major turning point in the American Revolution.

Among the Republicans joining Harris include former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and several former Trump aides.

A new CNN Poll of Polls average of national polling, released Wednesday morning, continues to find no clear leader in the presidential race, with an average of 51% of likely voters supporting Vice President Kamala Harris and 48% backing former President Donald Trump.

Of the four surveys included in the average, two give Harris a slight edge over Trump, while the other two show an effectively deadlocked race. A Marquette Law School poll released Wednesday finds likely voters split 50-50 when pushed to choose between the two candidates in a head-to-head race.

The Marquette poll finds that registered voters are more likely to describe Trump than Harris as having a strong record of accomplishments (53% say this describes Trump at least somewhat well, compared with 43% who feel it describes Harris), but are also more likely to say he has behaved corruptly (61% Trump, 38% Harris) and is too old to be president (59% Trump, 13% Harris).

Both Harris and Trump are seen by most registered voters as strong leaders.

A Marist College poll also released Wednesday finds Harris taking 52% to Trump’s 47% among likely voters in a head-to-head matchup.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and his Democratic challenger Rep. Colin Allred faced off in their first Senate debate on Tuesday night, going after one another on abortion, border security, transgender policy and policy toward Israel.

Allred attempted to paint Cruz as “extreme” and and slammed the Texas senator for his Cancun trip in 2021 amid a winter disaster hitting his home state.

Cruz, who’s seeking his third term, tried tying Allred to Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing the congressman of avoiding his record, and of wanting to change Texas.

Abortion: Cruz said that he believes that “the way we resolve questions like that” is at the ballot box.

Allred accused Cruz of lying about his position on abortion and said that he trusts “Texas women to make their own health care decisions.” He vowed, if elected, he would help make Roe v. Wade law of the land again.

Border security: Allred was pressed on his past comments calling former President Donald Trump’s border wall racist and why the change in his position in later backing President Joe Biden’s plans to expand the border wall.

Transgender athletes in sports: “I don’t support boys playing girls sports. I don’t,” Allred later said. “What I think is that folks should not be discriminated against.”

Donald Trump on Tuesday declared himself the “father of IVF,” a fertility treatment that has come under threat following the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

It’s unclear what precisely the former president meant when he made the comment at a Fox News town hall on “The Faulkner Focus” in battleground Georgia that was billed as focusing on women’s issues and had an all-female audience. But he has repeatedly returned to the issue – talking up his support for IVF – on the campaign trail, where he has given a long series of confusing or contradictory answers about his stance on abortion.

In vitro fertilization, an expensive, decades-old treatment used by millions of parents, became a flashpoint in the nationwide clash over abortion and reproductive rights earlier this year when Alabama’s Supreme Court said that frozen embryos are children and those who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death.

The Alabama ruling infuriated reproductive rights advocates who reasoned it would have a chilling effect on IVF, scaring off doctors who perform the procedure and sending prices even higher. It also set off a political firestorm that ultimately sent the state’s Republican-led Legislature scrambling to pass a bill giving civil and criminal immunity to providers and patients.

Read more about Trump’s comments on IVF here.

Early voting is kicking off this week in two critical battleground states as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump make their final pitch to voters.

Here are some headlines you might have missed from Tuesday: