What's happening today on the campaign trail
- President Joe Biden talked up his administration's efforts to spur private investment in U.S. manufacturing this afternoon. Vice President Kamala Harris has no public events.
- Former President Donald Trump has several campaign stops planned for later this week, including in New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
- Second gentleman Doug Emhoff participates this evening in a Jewish Voters for Harris-Walz call.
Judge rejects Trump’s second bid to move New York hush money case to federal court
A federal judge today denied former Trump’s second and last ditch bid to transfer his New York hush money case to federal court.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York found that there was no good cause to grant Trump’s lawyers permission to even file a motion.
The judge’s order said that in arguing “good cause” to move the case, Trump primarily argued that the state judge presiding over the criminal case, Juan Merchan, is biased against him and that the U.S. Supreme Court’s immunity ruling from July presents a valid federal defense for the hush money case.
Harris eyes tenfold boost in tax relief for small business startups
Harris is announcing a new policy plan that her campaign said would aim to boost small business applications by expanding tax deductions for startup expenses tenfold from $5,000 to $50,000, according to a Harris campaign official, who requested anonymity to reveal details of a still-unreleased proposal.
She’ll also seek to cut red tape “like wasting time and money on filing taxes or needing excessive occupational licenses across state lines to expand,” said the official.
Harris’ goal is to boost small business applications to 25 million in her first term, up from 19 million so far during the Biden administration, according to government statistics from mid-August. The Harris official said it’s “part of a concentrated strategy to take Harris’ economic agenda directly to voters on the airwaves, and to contrast it with Trump’s plans to give billionaires and big corporations a tax cut.”
The Trump campaign panned Harris' proposal.
“It’s laughable that Kamala Haris is trying to pitch herself as good for the economy when she has been a fierce advocate for Bidenomics, which is crushing small business owners,” Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson, told NBC News.
“She could fix these problems right now as vice president, but she hasn’t.”
Kari Lake picks up police union endorsement in Arizona Senate race
Reporting from Phoenix
Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake picked up an endorsement from the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police today.
"Your endorsement by the F.O.P., one of Arizona's largest police organizations, is based on your demonstrated support of significant public safety issues and reflects our belief that you best understand the difficult job faced by members of the law enforcement community. Your support of those efforts has not gone unnoticed," the organization's president, Paul Sheldon, said in a statement.
Sheldon is the brother of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., who Lake has praised on the campaign trail in recent months.
The endorsement comes after Lake missed out on the backing of the Arizona Police Association, another police union, in July. The group opted to endorse Rep. Ruben Gallego, Lake's Democratic rival.
Trump to plead not guilty to revised federal election interference indictment
Trump is entering a not guilty plea following a superseding indictment last week related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, the former president said in a court filing today.
He also waived the right to be present at his arraignment, where he will be charged with the same four counts from last year’s original indictment.
Inside the bitter personal battle between top FBI and DOJ officials over Mar-a-Lago
On Aug. 1, 2022, senior Justice Department and FBI officials gathered on the seventh floor of the FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., for a historic meeting.
They exchanged pleasantries, shook hands, and took seats in Room 7427, the FBI general counsel’s conference room, a nondescript gathering place with a long rectangular table surrounded by no-frills office chairs. Each official wore a suit, mandatory attire on the storied floor that houses the office of the FBI director and his top advisers.
The senior DOJ officials had left their headquarters, an elegant mix of Classical and Art Deco architecture, and met their bureau colleagues across Pennsylvania Avenue in the FBI headquarters, a Brutalist structure considered one of the ugliest buildings in Washington. Their goal was to have what one participant later called a “come to Jesus” meeting.
Philadelphia Eagles deny endorsing Kamala Harris after fake ads pop up around Philly
A new ad appearing on the streets of Philadelphia yesterday showed Harris in an Eagles uniform holding a football, with “KAMALA” in bold letters above the tagline “Official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles.”
The NFL team confirmed that the ads were fake.
“We are aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with our advertising partner to have them removed,” the Eagles said in a statement posted to social media.
Harris to continue debate prep Thursday in Pittsburgh
Harris will continue her debate prep Thursday in Pittsburgh and is expected to make informal campaign stops, according to a campaign official.
The rules for the Sept. 10 debate on ABC are still being hashed out.
Ex-top aide to N.Y. Gov. Kathy Hochul was a secret Chinese agent, prosecutors say
A former top aide to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was arrested today on federal charges of acting as a secret agent of the Chinese government, authorities said.
Linda Sun, 41, is accused of using her high-ranking positions in state government to serve the interests of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party in exchange for millions of dollars. Her husband, Chris Hu, 40, was also arrested in the alleged scheme.
Sun and Hu are expected to appear in federal court in Brooklyn this afternoon. Sun was charged with violating and conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act, visa fraud, alien smuggling and money laundering. Hu was charged with money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and misuse of means of identification.
Harris campaign continues negotiations with ABC over debate rules, campaign official says
The Harris campaign is still negotiating with ABC News about rules for the Sept. 10 debate with Trump, according to a Harris campaign official.
No agreement has been reached on the final rules, the official said.
One of the key issues is whether the candidates’ microphones should be muted when it isn’t their turn to speak.
Another bad day for Trump Media's stock
Shares of Truth Social parent company Trump Media and Technology fell even further Tuesday, falling under $18 a share several points during trading hours.
The stock's slump comes just weeks before Donald Trump, who owns nearly 60% of the shares, can sell his stock. His stake was worth about $2 billion as of Tuesday. Trump Media stock could potentially fall even further if the former president sells shares later this month.
All told, the stock is down more than 75% since its high point of $79.38 in late March, just after Trump Media started trading under the symbol DJT following a merger with a publicly traded company called DWAC.
Stocks were down across the board Tuesday, but Trump Media hasn't followed market trends of late. So far this year, when you combine the performance of DWAC and DJT, the stock is up nearly 3%, compared a 14% gain on the Nasdaq stock index.
Trump says he sometimes regrets sharing Truth Social posts
In an interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, Trump said he sometimes does regret posts on his social media platform, Truth Social.
"I do a lot of reposting. The ones you get in trouble with are the reposts, because you find down deep, they’re into some group that you’re not supposed to be reposting," he said. "You don’t even know if those groups are good, bad or indifferent, but the reposts are the ones that really get you in trouble. When you do your own words, it’s sort of easier, but the reposts go very quickly."
Last week, he reposted messages calling for his political opponents to be jailed, made a graphic sexual joke about Harris and former opponent Hillary Clinton. In August, Trump had more than 1,000 posts on the platform.
Marvel actor Sebastian Stan plays Trump in first clip from 'The Apprentice' movie
The company distributing an upcoming film dramatizing Trump's early years released a one-minute clip this morning. In the clip from "The Apprentice," Trump (played by Sebastian Stan) chats on the phone with a reporter while being coached by his mentor, Roy Cohn, the famed right-wing political fixer (played by Jeremy Strong).
Briarcliff Entertainment plans to release "The Apprentice" on Oct. 11, 25 days before the election, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. "The Apprentice," named for the NBC reality television show that helped make cement the former president's celebrity, premiered in May at the Cannes Film Festival.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung excoriated "The Apprentice" after the Cannes debut, blasting it as "pure malicious defamation" filled with "blatantly false assertions." Cheung said the campaign planned to file a lawsuit against the filmmakers, but it's clear whether that has happened.
"The Apprentice," directed by Iranian Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi and written by Vanity Fair journalist Gabriel Sherman, revolves around Trump's relationship with Cohn, described in the movie's press materials as "the cutthroat attorney who would help create the Donald Trump we know today."
Cohn died of AIDS-related complications in 1986, though he denied he was HIV-positive. He was 59. Stan is best known to viewers as Bucky Barnes from Marvel's "Avengers" franchise. Strong starred as media scion Kendall Roy on HBO's "Succession."
N.Y. prosecutors urge judge to reject Trump delay tactics in hush money case
Prosecutors in New York are urging the judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money case not to allow his last-ditch effort to move the case to federal court to delay proceedings in the historic state criminal case.
Lawyers for the former president filed a motion in federal court last week seeking to move the state prosecution into federal court. A federal judge rejected a similar attempt last year, but Trump’s attorneys argued the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity in a separate Trump criminal case has made their position stronger and that a judge should halt the Sept. 18 sentencing while he considers the issue.
They also want the state judge presiding over the criminal case, Juan Merchan, to halt the proceedings while the federal judge considers the issue, and have contended they need more time to present their arguments before his sentencing.
In a letter last week to the judge that was made public Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office urged Merchan to deny the request.
“Federal law is clear that proceedings in this Court need not be stayed pending the district court’s resolution of defendant’s removal notice,” the DA’s letter said. It also added that “the concerns defendant expresses about timing are a function of his own strategic and dilatory litigation tactics: This second notice of removal comes nearly ten months after defendant voluntarily abandoned his appeal from his first, unsuccessful effort to remove this case; three months after he was found guilty by a jury on thirty-four felony counts; and nearly two months after defendant asked this Court to consider his CPL § 330.30 motion for a new trial.”
Harris campaign kicks off abortion-rights bus tour near Mar-a-Lago
The Harris campaign kicked off an abortion rights-focused bus tour today in Boynton Beach, Florida, bringing the issue to Trump's backyard.
“It’s not lost on us we are just 10 miles from Mar-a-Lago, home of Donald Trump,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., who is headlining the event.
Florida is one of about a dozen states where abortion is or could be on the November ballot. The state's Amendment 4 would overturn the current six-week ban and protect abortion rights until “viability," or about 24 weeks, but it will need the approval of 60% of voters.
With the tour, the Harris campaign aims to highlight Amendment 4 and abortion rights more generally and build on momentum it says it is seeing in the state, including the “largest surge” of volunteers of any state after Harris’ 2024 announcement, the state's campaign communications director, Karol Molinares, said.
“I’m not ruling out Florida at all,” Klobuchar told NBC News, reflecting Democratic hopes of putting the state in play this election. “They had a Democratic senator in Bill Nelson, and we have a great candidate in Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. And we also have growing interest in this extreme abortion ban and the fact that Medicare matters to the people in Florida. … I’m not ruling it out, and I don’t think the campaign is or they wouldn’t have started their tour here.”
Trump says on Truth Social that there was 'no conflict' at Arlington
Trump denied in a post to Truth Social today that there was an incident at Arlington National Cemetery during his visit there last week.
"It was a made up story by Comrade Kamala and her misinformation squad. She made it all up to make up for the fact that she and Sleepy Joe have BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS for the INCOMPETENT AFGHANISTAN Withdrawal — THE MOST EMBARRASSING DAY IN U.S. HISTORY!!! They should have been at Arlington, not on a beach or studying for a Debate," he wrote.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment. On Saturday, Harris criticized Trump over the incident in a post to X, saying he "disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt."
The Army also made a statement about the matter on Thursday, calling the incident "unfortunate" and saying a Trump aide had "abruptly pushed aside" a cemetery employee who was trying to prevent the aide from taking photos and videos of a restricted part of the cemetery, according to federal regulations.
Harris campaign launches ads aimed at social media; Trump campaign unveals ads targeting football fans
The Harris campaign launched several new digital ads over the weekend that are designed to show up in people’s threads or "Short" feeds on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.
Most of them are being targeted at very specific communities across the swing states. A few of the ads are unique in that they have an animation on the bottom that appears to be designed to keep people’s attention on these platforms.
The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has recently launched a few different ads featuring video footage from football games or stadiums, including an endorsement from former Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher and another ad, unveiled yesterday, that's running in swing states.
Former GOP Sen. Pat Toomey says he won't vote for Trump or Harris
Former Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" today that he would decline to vote for either Harris or Trump, saying in part that neither candidate "will be my choice."
Toomey then criticized the GOP nominee: “When you lose an election and you try to overturn the results so that you can stay in power, you lose me. You lose me at that point,” Toomey said.
Trump has been indicted in his effort to overturn his loss to Biden in the 2020 election. Authorities have said Trump's claims of a stolen election catalyzed the violent riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021.
Toomey was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection in the former president's second impeachment trial.
Anti-Trump GOP group launches campaign ad for Harris
Republican Voters Against Trump released a new ad today highlighting several former Trump supporters who say they plan to vote for Harris. The ad is running in several swing states, including Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
The voters in the ad expressed concerns over Trump's roll in the Jan. 6 riot, his felony conviction in the New York hush money case, his treatment of women and reports of him making disparaging remarks about fallen U.S. service members.
Hispanic Caucus-linked PAC pours new ad spending into Arizona Senate race
PHOENIX — The super PAC affiliated with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is making its first foray into the 2024 general election advertising battles, backing Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego in the Arizona Senate race.
The group, CHC BOLD PAC, said it is splashing about $1.1 million on cable, radio and digital ads targeting Latina matriarchs across the battleground state.
The ad, titled “La Jefas” (“The Bosses”), hit the air in Spanish and Spanglish. “Grandmothers, mothers, sisters — bosses,” a narrator says, with the soft sounds of an acoustic guitar and a trumpet in the background. “In the Senate, he’ll fight for them,” the narrator promises about Gallego.
Polls show a changed, close 2024 race heading into Labor Day
Two words sum up the national and battleground state polls released ahead of Labor Day weekend, with fewer than 10 weeks to go until Election Day: changed and close.
Changed, because most of the surveys — conducted after Biden’s exit from the 2024 race, after the Democratic convention, and after independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorsed Trump — show Harris with narrow leads nationally and in key battlegrounds.
That’s compared with polling that mostly showed Trump with a narrow edge before Biden’s departure.
And close, because almost all of Harris’ leads are within the polls’ margins of error. And given the polling errors of 2016 and especially 2020, a candidate holding a 1-, 2-, or 3-point advantage in surveys doesn’t guarantee victory — far from it.
Larry Hogan launches Senate ad in Md. touching on his response to Jan. 6 attack as governor
Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has launched a Senate ad touching on his role responding to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.
The ad touted other parts of his record as governor and then showed footage of the violence perpetrated by Trump's supporters at the Capitol.
“On January 6, as we watched in horror, Hogan didn’t just talk about defending democracy, he did something — sending in the Maryland National Guard to protect the Capitol,” the narrator of the ad says.
Hogan, a moderate Republican who has long been a Trump critic, is in a competitive Senate race against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks.
Biden says U.S. Secret Service says he can no longer go into crowds
Biden said yesterday that he can no longer go into crowds because the U.S. Secret Service says it's too dangerous.
The president made the comment when he was asked by a reporter how it felt to be on the campaign trail with Harris. “Feels good — except I’m not able to go out into crowds anymore, the Secret Service doesn’t let me," he said.
Asked why, Biden said, “Because they said it’s too dangerous. No one gets to go out.”
The Secret Service has come under intense scrutiny following errors it made leading up to the assassination attempt on Trump at an outdoor campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
Biden told reporters he was 'very close' to presenting a final hostage deal this week.
Biden said yesterday that he did not think Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had done enough to secure a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, a comment that comes amid massive protests in Israel.
Biden made the remark to reporters after a weekend during which the bodies of six hostages executed by Hamas were found in a Gaza tunnel. Among those discovered was the body of 23-year-old American Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents had publicly pleaded for the return of their son. The pair had brought their personal appeal to the Democratic National Convention, where they were received with a standing ovation.
Two people briefed on discussions to secure a deal told NBC News that Biden may offer a final “take it or leave it” deal to Israel and Hamas as soon as this week in hope of reaching a cease-fire agreement. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan suggested the move as an option during a virtual meeting with U.S. hostage families Sunday, these people said.
Front-liner Angie Craig launches new ad focused on fentanyl fight and border security
Vulnerable Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., is out with a new campaign ad today highlighting her work to hold social media companies accountable for illegal drugs sold on their platforms.
The 30-second TV spot, first shared with NBC News, features Minnesota mother Bridgette Norring, whose 19-year-old son died in 2020 after an accidental fentanyl poisoning. Devin Norring had logged onto the social media app Snapchat and purchased what he believed to be Percocet pain reliever pills, but they were actually fentanyl.
“Angie Craig has taken this fight on as her own, holding tech companies, drug companies and drug traffickers accountable,” Bridgette Norring says in the ad. “Angie even stood up to her own party fighting for more agents and technology to secure the border.
“I typically vote Republican,” Norring says, “but I am for Angie Craig because she is relentless.”
The ad alludes to Craig’s work on bipartisan legislation with Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, requiring social media companies to report to federal law enforcement when illegal drug-making, dealing or distribution occurs on their platforms, or face stiff penalties.
This past spring, Craig pushed for additional funding to install high-tech fentanyl scanners at the border and also led a letter from Democrats to Biden calling on the president to take executive action to secure the southern border.
In July, Craig became the first front-line Democrat to call on Biden to drop out of the presidential race.
Craig is facing Republican Joe Teirab, a former federal and county prosecutor, in November.
‘A dogfight’: Harris and Trump enter the final election stretch after Labor Day
An unprecedented summer has turned the presidential race on its head with two months to go until Election Day, showing a dead heat in key states between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump as both candidates gear up for a final blitz after the Labor Day holiday weekend.
A race that was slipping away from President Joe Biden is competitive again after he withdrew July 21 and passed the baton to his vice president, who has captured support from key groups that had soured on him, most notably young and Black voters.
Harris, 59, has turned the issue of age from a potentially fatal liability to an asset for Democrats against the 78-year-old Trump. The former president, who was running with confidence against Biden, has appeared rattled at times by Harris, launching personal and racial attacks against a rival who would be the first woman and the first Indian American to be president. She has brushed them off.
“It’s a toss-up race,” Republican strategist Brad Todd said, cautioning that the GOP’s fortunes are not as bright as they were when the Democratic nominee was the 81-year-old Biden.
Harris began a battleground blitz, attempting to win over blue-collar workers in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Harris was joined by Biden in Pittsburgh in their first joint campaign appearance. NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez reports.
Biden and Harris rally in battleground Pennsylvania as Trump sits out Labor Day
Biden and Harris joined forces on the campaign trail yesterday in the marquee union town of Pittsburgh, making the case that their administration’s record on labor would again lift workers if Harris were sent to the White House.
It was a Labor Day showing in a battleground state on what is traditionally the political kickoff to the fall campaign season. But it was a tradition bypassed by Trump, who in an unusual move did not hit the trail either Sunday or Monday.
Trump says he had ‘every right’ to interfere in the 2020 election
Trump said Sunday that he had “every right” to interfere with the 2020 election, even as two criminal cases involving those allegations hang over him. Yesterday, Harris’ campaign charged that the comments were evidence that the former president believed he was “above the law.”
In a Fox News interview that aired Sunday, Trump went on a long screed about the Justice Department and its treatment of him, charging he had been targeted. Trump marveled that the criminal charges did nothing but boost his poll numbers because, he surmised, his supporters didn’t buy them in the first place.