Election 2024 live updates: Trump and Harris campaign in North Carolina and Wisconsin

Senate candidate Ruben Gallego created some distance between himself and the White House today by criticizing President Joe Biden's response to a comedian’s racist joke at a Trump rally.

“No politician should be talking about anybody that way. Doesn't matter who they are,” the Arizona Democrat told reporters before quickly moving on to his next campaign stop in a competitive race against Republican Kari Lake.

Gallego's remark came a day after Biden appeared to criticize either Trump supporters or comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage" among other racist jokes at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.

A group of nearly two dozen Syrian Americans endorsed Harris in a letter, obtained first by NBC News from a Harris campaign official.

"We are not only proudly integrated in every part of American life, but we have helped shape it," the letter said. "We intend to vote for a Harris-Walz administration precisely for that reason, to preserve freedom and democracy for our children."

Much of the letter zeroed in on policies toward Syria that they hope a future administration would maintain, including humanitarian and development aid in the country.

Trump supporters at Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Dave McCormick's rally with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley weighed in this afternoon about the debacle surrounding a comedian's racist joke about Puerto Rico at a Trump rally and Biden's apparent reference last night to Trump's supporters as "garbage."

Rick Sacks, a Republican, suggested "maybe he shouldn't have been at that event" when he was asked for his response to the backlash after Tony Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage" at a Trump rally in New York over the weekend.

"Obviously that was, you know, an inflammatory statement," Sacks added. "But it’s not Donald Trump’s view. It’s one comedian that was there."

Telsa CEO Elon Musk must attend an emergency court hearing in Philadelphia tomorrow to address a bid by the city’s top prosecutor to stop him and his political action committee from continuing to award $1 million prizes to registered voters in the swing state of Pennsylvania, a judge ordered today.

Also today, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner revealed in a new court filing that his lawsuit against Musk and America PAC had “triggered an avalanche of [social media] posts from Musk’s followers,” many of whom “made antisemitic attacks on Krasner.”

Krasner sued Musk and the PAC on Monday, accusing them of operating an illegal lottery and of trying to influence voters in the presidential election.

Read the full story here.

Upon landing in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump got off his plane and stepped into the passenger seat of a garbage truck on the tarmac, a jab at Biden's appearing to call Trump supporters "garbage."

Biden quickly tried to clarify after he made the remarks, saying he was not calling Trump supporters "garbage"; rather, he said, he was referring to "the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage."

"Joe Biden should be ashamed of himself, if he knows what he's even doing," Trump said from the garbage truck.

In a social media post, campaign staffer Victor Shi wrote, "*700+* writers across every genre and form have just endorsed VP Kamala Harris for president." People on the list include Rosie O'Donnell, Cyndi Lauper, Brené Brown, Glennon Doyle and Margaret Atwood.

"With the stakes in November so high, we are not sitting on the sidelines this election. For the sake of our lives, our families and friends, our neighbors, our democracy, and our shared humanity, we are proud to endorse Kamala Harris for President of the United States," the letter says.

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

House Speaker Mike Johnson sought to clean up a remark he made at a closed-door event Monday in Pennsylvania, which NBC News first reported, in which he criticized the Affordable Care Act and said “no Obamacare” during a back-and-forth about the future of health care.

The Harris campaign seized on his comment to argue that Johnson, R-La., would try to wipe out the ACA if Republicans win the 2024 election.

“Despite the dishonest characterizations from the Harris campaign, the audio and transcript make clear that I offered no such promise to end Obamacare, and in fact acknowledged that the policy is ‘deeply ingrained’ in our health care system,” Johnson said in a statement.

“Still, House Republicans will always seek to reduce the costs and improve the quality and availability of health care for all Americans. Anyone who has been a patient or known a loved one who has struggled with health issues understands why this is so important," he continued.

Third-party presidential candidate Cornel West has filed a long-shot emergency application at the Supreme Court asking for Pennsylvania to notify voters at every polling place in the key swing state that he is running.

State officials previously rejected attempts to gain access to the ballot by West, who is viewed as a spoiler candidate who could draw votes away from Harris. He made no headway in lower courts.

West is running as the candidate for the Justice for All Party. His lawyers asked the Supreme Court to require the state to post notices at all polling locations that he is a presidential candidate and that they can write him in on the ballot.

Harris contrasted her approach with Trump's at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, this afternoon, trying to reassure people who hold different political beliefs that she would hear out their concerns if she is elected after Biden appeared to criticize Trump supporters.

“I pledge to listen to experts, to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make and to the people who disagree with me,” Harris said.

Republicans have argued Democrats are disparaging Trump supporters after Biden appeared to refer to Trump's supporters as "garbage" last night.

Less than a week before election day, foreign adversaries have not been able to compromise the nation’s election system infrastructure, one of the nation’s top cybersecurity officials said today. 

Jen Easterly, the head of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told NBC News that there are no indications that Russia, China or Iran has been able to hack into U.S. election infrastructure. 

“In my view, that would not be possible,” she told NBC News in an interview. “I do not believe it would be possible for a malicious actor to tamper with our voting infrastructure in a way that would have a material impact on the outcome of the presidential election, certainly not without being detected.”

Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin endorsed Trump for president today, saying in a statement that he believes the country would be best served by Trump.

"Most citizens rightly consider it an honor to cast their vote for a leader they believe will best serve the Nation — our government by, for and of the people. For me, for the future of our Nation, to meet enormous challenges, and for the proven policy accomplishments above, I believe the nation is best served by voting for Donald J. Trump," Aldrin said in a statement.

Campaigning alongside GOP Senate candidate Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania today, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley didn't respond to questions about whether she'd campaign with Trump in the final stretch of the campaign.

"Good to see y’all. Great to be out here with Dave. We are going to take Pennsylvania," she said in response to questions about whether she'd campaign with Trump.

Haley faced off against Trump in the GOP primaries and got thousands of votes. Now, many of her supporters are unsure whether to vote for Trump, even though Haley eventually endorsed him.

Earlier in her remarks at the Pennsylvania event, Haley called on voters to "take the emotion" out of the coming election.

Asked whether Biden will attend the inauguration regardless of who wins, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said yes.

She added, “I mean, this president believes in the peaceful transfer of power, and that’s what you’re going to see this president do."

"It’s not about him. It’s about the American people. That’s what the American people need to see, regardless of who wins," Jean-Pierre said. "Attending the inauguration, being there, being part of what is regularly done, a historic kind of process, he certainly is going to partake in that.”

Nicky Jam, a Puerto Rican Dominican singer who endorsed Trump in September, has backtracked after Tony Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as a "floating island of garbage."

"Never in my life did I think that just one month later a comedian would show up and criticize my country, and speak poorly of my country. And for that, I revoke any support for Donald Trump and I’m stepping aside from any kind of political situation. Puerto Rico is to be respected," he said on social media.

At a rally last month in which Nicky Jam endorsed him, Trump accidentally misgendered him, saying, "Latin music superstar Nicky Jam, do you know Nicky? She's hot. Where's Nicky?"

In his post today, Nicky Jam emphasized that he originally supported Trump because he thought he would be beneficial to the Latino population.

Anuel AA, another Puerto Rican artist who backed Trump at a separate rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, has not made any comment yet on the comedian's remarks.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., responded to Nicky Jam’s revoking his endorsement of Trump.

She wrote, “Thank you for having the courage to show by example that it’s okay to change your mind and stand up for our community."

Trump and his allies are seizing on routine election processes as signs of fraud in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania, amplifying allegations, videos and litigation around purported voting irregularities that have drawn pushback from local officials days out from Election Day.

The playbook is familiar: Like in 2020, Trump campaign’s is spreading viral videos of supposed wrongdoing and promising its eager supporters a legal showdown, which experts fear could be used to contest the results of the election if he loses.

Trump supporters yesterday spread videos of long lines in Bucks County, where voters were waiting to request mail ballots in person. A social media post from Trump campaign political director James Blair said a line in one area was shut down early around 2:30 p.m.

“This is suppressive and intimidating,” Blair wrote in a post on X seen by 1.8 million people. Elon Musk, the owner of X and a Trump supporter, replied: “Why are they doing this?”

Onstage in North Carolina this afternoon, Trump commented on Biden's referring to his supporters as "garbage," saying they are "far higher quality than crooked Joe."

"You can’t lead America if you don’t love Americans. You just can’t. And you can’t be president If you hate the American people, and there’s a lot of hatred there," he said.

Biden made the comment on a media call yesterday, saying, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters," referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe's remarks about Puerto Rico at a Trump rally Sunday.

NBC News asked eight Harris supporters whether they would ever date a Trump supporter. Seven said they wouldn’t, and one said he would. 

“If you’re OK with, again, my family possibly being deported, racism comments, if you’re OK with me not having that right to an abortion or anything like that, just those beliefs, I just don’t see myself dating that person,” said Andrea Ramirez, a 22-year-old communications specialist.

Destiny Tapia, 18, a student at Arizona State University, said it’s even hard for her to be friends with Trump supporters. “I feel like if you’re a Trump supporter, you just don’t simply value women," she said. "And how could I date someone that does not value me as a woman?” 

Imelda Quiros, 57, said “there’s no chance” she’d date a Trump supporter and joked, “I’m gonna be single forever.” 

The Trump campaign won a court order to extend hours to receive and return mail ballots in-person in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where long lines had drawn the campaign’s ire and allegations of voter suppression.

The county is now required to process in-person mail ballot applications through Friday.

Bucks County officials had said they couldn’t accommodate the huge lines that formed outside election offices, because early, in-person voting isn't an option. There is an option to request, fill out and return mail ballots in person.

Today on her SiriusXM program, former GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley spoke out against President Biden’s “garbage” comment and called for an end to “schoolyard” behavior on both sides of the presidential campaign.

“I’m amazed in this election how they have not realized you don’t demean the other side," she said. "To turn around and call, you know, Trump supporters ‘Garbage.’ I’m like, at what point does everybody not get, people are smart, they just want to know what you’re going to do to make their life better. They don’t want to be called a name. This isn’t a schoolyard."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at the press briefing today that Biden's remarks that he came under fire for yesterday were not about Trump supporters.

“He was not calling Trump supporters garbage, which is why he wanted to make sure that we put out a statement that clarified what he meant and what he was trying to say,” she said. “Hateful rhetoric, hateful rhetoric that he hears and this is something that we’ve done many times from here, we’ll call that out.”

Earlier today, Harris reacted to Biden's remarks, saying that the president clarified his remarks but said, “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they voted for.”

In an interview with barber and influencer Victor Fontanez, also known as VicBlends, former President Barack Obama made a closing pitch on behalf of Harris, arguing that this election, "is such a clear choice."

"[Trump] does not respect you. He does not see you. He does not think you are equal to him and the people that he considers to be quote unquote real Americans. And in that situation, that is something that, somebody who does not respect you should not represent you," Obama added, responding to a question from Fontanez about how to deal with "dehumanizing" rhetoric about immigrants.

He urged viewers to turn out and vote for Harris, telling them that they should vote with their eyes on the future.

As the Harris campaign continues to try to make overtures to Arab Americans amid criticism of America's handling of the conflict in the Middle East, a new digital ad running in Michigan shows how they're looking to a key validator to make the case.

In the new digital ad, Deputy Wayne County Executive Assad Turfe calls his vote "personal," as the camera pulls in on a necklace featuring the cedar tree at the center of the Lebanese flag.

"I want a president that will end the war in Gaza and in Lebanon. Kamala Harris is that leader. She's working to secure relief and peace," he says, before criticizing the "chaos" and "suffering" he believes Trump will bring, noting his push for a travel ban from a handful of Muslim countries during his first administration.

And the ad makes a direct appeal to those considering voting third party: "A vote for a third party is a vote for Trump."

An incendiary device found on a ballot drop box that was set on fire early Monday in Portland, Oregon, is undergoing a forensic analysis for "any unique writings or markings," a police spokesperson said today.

Police did not confirm what may have been marked on the device, but clarified that the mechanism was "attached" to the side of the box and not placed inside of it.

The box in Portland was one of two targeted around the same time, with the other ballot drop box similarly destroyed in neighboring Vancouver, Washington. While only three ballots were damaged in Portland, "hundreds" were potentially affected in Vancouver.

The search for a suspect, who is believed to be connected to both incidents, remains ongoing, and election officials have asked voters who may have used the drop boxes to contact their respective offices.

In the home stretch of the 2024 election, voters who’ve been weighing both campaigns’ proposals to tackle living costs are now hearing a new pitch from the Republican side: accept some short-term economic pain to rein in government spending.

That message has emerged from former President Donald Trump’s wealthiest backer, Elon Musk, who says that the GOP nominee’s plans to put the U.S. on firmer fiscal footing would likely entail “temporary hardship” for ordinary Americans.   

Chinese retail investors are flocking to the stock of a company whose name in Chinese alludes to a Trump election victory, sending share prices up to their daily limit for three days in a row.

Shenzhen-listed Wisesoft, which produces air traffic control software, is known in Chinese as “chuan da zhi sheng,” which sounds like “Trump victory.” Its shares have surged 10% every day this week and have almost doubled to 21.98 renminbi ($3.08) in the past month, growing far more rapidly than the overall CSI 300 Index. The company makes almost all of its revenue in China and has little connection with the United States.

This phenomenon isn’t new for Wisesoft, whose stock also soared in June 2015 before Trump announced his first run for president and in July this year after a bullet grazed his ear at a rally in Pennsylvania. It has also affected other Chinese stocks such as acoustic components company Goertek, which rose dramatically after the assassination attempt and whose name in Chinese sounds like “cutting ears.”

Many of China’s more than 200 million retail investors are inexperienced, which can make its financial markets highly speculative and volatile. Beijing's announcement late last month of a series of economic stimulus measures set off a stock trading frenzy that resulted in wild market swings.

Harris said she strongly disagrees with criticisms of groups of people based on the candidate they support. Her remarks came after President Joe Biden came under fire the night before for his reaction to a comedian’s racist joke at a rally for former President Donald Trump.

Speaking to reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews before leaving for campaign events, Harris said that Biden “clarified his comments” but added, “I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they voted for.”

During a video call for Latino voter outreach on Tuesday, Biden appeared to criticize either Trump supporters or comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage“ among other racist jokes at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.

“They’re good, decent, honorable people,” Biden said, referring to the Puerto Rican community. “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done.”

Read the full story here.

During an interview on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler predicted that the presidential race in his state would be "a squeaker."

“This could be a squeaker, but I give us the edge for ground game energy,” Wikler said.

“I would rather be us than them in the Senate race and the presidential” because of “what we’re seeing on the Republican side is a 100% negative, massive, scorched earth, flood of ads," Wikler added.

He mentioned that ticket-splitting is "not uncommon" in Wisconsin in response to a question about whether ticket-splitting voters could hurt Democrats.

The DOJ has now responded to the Supreme Court ruling that Virginia officials are allowed to remove 1,600 voters from the state’s registration rolls less than one week before the presidential election.

"The Department brought this suit to ensure that every eligible American citizen can vote in our elections. We disagree with the Supreme Court’s order," a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.

Malaysia’s foreign minister has responded on social media to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s inaccurate description of Harris as Malaysian.

“Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Mr. Carlson,” Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan said in a Facebook post today. “We were not aware that a Malaysian was running for the office of US President. Should Puan Kamala win the race, we are delighted to invite her to #balikkampung and try some #nasigorengUSA.”

The Malay phrase “balik kampung” means “returning to one’s hometown,” specifically during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, while nasi goreng is a beloved Malaysian rice dish.

Carlson incorrectly identified Harris as “Samoan-Malaysian” as he made a series of disparaging remarks about her at a Trump rally at Madison Square Garden in New York on Sunday. Harris, who is the first Black and first Asian American vice president, is of Jamaican and Indian heritage.

As Trump promises the largest mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in U.S. history if re-elected, his team is considering withholding federal police grants from local law enforcement agencies that decline to take part in the deportations, three sources close to the Trump campaign told NBC News. 

The move could prompt legal challenges, as a similar policy did in the first Trump administration. The sources also cautioned that no plans are set in stone until Trump announces them himself. 

The Trump campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

The three sources close to the campaign claimed that the tactic would survive legal challenges and pressure blue states, counties and cities into participating in mass deportations. 

Read the full story here.

Police arrested an 18-year-old wielding a machete with an 18-inch blade outside a polling station in Florida on Tuesday, and said he was part of a group of teenagers accused of intimidating Democratic supporters.

The teenager, Caleb James Williams, was arrested after 4 p.m. when officers were called to the Beaches Branch Library in Neptune Beach.

Williams was arrested on charges of aggravated assault for allegedly brandishing his weapon at two unidentified women, ages 71 and 54, and improper exhibition of a weapon, Neptune Beach Police Department said.

The local Democratic campaign said it was “deeply concerned,” saying a group of young men waving signs supporting Trump had confronted a group holding signs promoting Harris.

Read the full story here.

A viral video posted by a popular QAnon X account, purporting to show evidence of illegal harvesting in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, is in fact video of a postal worker delivering ballots to the elections office.

In the video, the person behind the camera follows a postal worker into the county building asking about the box of ballots going through security. “There’s someone here in Northampton County dropping off an obscene amount of ballots at the very last second after the office is closed,” the man taking the video says.

Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure told NBC News that the video showed Charles Narciso, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Postal Service and the acting postmaster, lawfully bringing ballots into the election office. NBC News verified his identity with a photograph posted on a USPS-linked website.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Hollywood superstar and former Republican governor of California, threw his weight behind the Harris-Walz ticket in a post on X this morning, urging voters to reject Trump's brand of "un-American" politics.

"I will always be an American before I am a Republican," Schwarzenegger wrote in a lengthy post. "That’s why, this week, I am voting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I’m sharing it with all of you because I think there are a lot of you who feel like I do. You don’t recognize our country. And you are right to be furious."

Walz defended Biden in an interview this morning after the president came under fire for his reaction to a comedian who made racist and offensive remarks about the Puerto Rican community at Trump's Sunday rally.

"President Biden was very clear that he’s speaking about the rhetoric we heard at that [rally], so it doesn’t undermine it," Walz said in an interview on "CBS Mornings."

The Supreme Court today allowed Republican officials in Virginia to revive a plan aimed to removing noncitizen voters from the rolls ahead of next week’s election.

The justices blocked a federal judge’s ruling that put the program on hold and required the state to restore 1,600 voters to the rolls.

The brief order noted that the three liberal justices on the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, all dissented.

Civil rights groups, backed by the Biden administration, challenged the plan, saying it had led to some legal voters being removed from the rolls too. The Justice Department said that while states can review its voter rolls, it cannot do so right before an election.

Read the full story here.

President Joe Biden is taking the spotlight following comments in which he appears to refer to Trump supporters as “garbage.” Meanwhile, Harris made her closing argument to voters yesterday at the Ellipse in Washington, the same site where Trump spoke ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for "TODAY."

In the immediate aftermath of his remarks, NBC News asked five Latina Harris supporters about President Joe Biden’s “garbage” comment. Four out of the five did not agree with Biden’s comment, though they offered nuanced responses. 

“You never treat people like that, even Trump supporters,” said Imelda Quiros, 57, who became a naturalized citizen in 2020.

“We are human," she said, adding that people must "respect each other."

Destiny Tapia, an 18-year-old student at Arizona State University, added, “I think a lot of Trump supporters are not minorities and are not definitely people of color, so I think it’s easier for them to say things and it not be done to them."

Minerva Fernandez, a school counselor from Phoenix, said, “I wouldn’t want to call people garbage, but I do want to say that I believe those beliefs or those behaviors are garbage.”

Walz declined to say this morning whether there should be abortion restrictions instituted for the third trimester of pregnancy, saying only that he and Harris want Roe v. Wade protections to be restored.

"The vice president has been very clear that making sure that we restore the right of Roe v. Wade, making sure that women and their health care providers, because these services are health care, making sure those decisions are made in the best interest of the health of the mother," Walz said in an interview on "CBS Mornings."

He continued, "Donald Trump gleefully talks about the beautiful thing that he's done, which means women having miscarriages in parking lots. I'm down here and was in Georgia yesterday where Amber Thurman died, and it was totally preventable had we not had a Donald Trump abortion ban. So we've been clear about that, restoration of Roe, that's what we're looking for."

Asked if there should be a federal abortion ban on the third trimester, Walz said, "'I'm going to go back again, Roe was very clear on what they did. We want the restoration of Roe, and that's the position we're taking."

PHOENIX — Both Trump and Arizona GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake have repeatedly pushed false claims that their lost elections were stolen from them. But for some Arizona voters, only Trump’s election denialism is resonating. 

For John Giza, 66, a retired Walmart employee from Show Low, the idea that Trump lost the presidential election in 2020 is unfathomable. “I believe there was a great deal of rule changes because of Covid that allowed multiple duplicate voters and people who are not eligible,” Giza said outside a Trump rally in Prescott Valley on Oct. 13, parroting Trump’s debunked claims.

But when it comes to Lake’s failed bid for governor in 2022, when she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs, Giza believes that election was legitimate. “I fought election fraud all my life. I don’t think she did” win, said Giza, who plans to vote for Lake. 

Americans have two big questions as they head into another election with a deeply divided electorate: It’s not not just who will win the presidency, but when will we know who has won the presidency.

In 2020, election week replaced election night: Joe Biden wasn’t declared the winner until Saturday. This year, it could go either way. It may take as long as a week for the NBC News Decision Desk to project a presidential winner, or it could happen as early as Wednesday, even by Wednesday morning. 

The truth is the Decision Desk cannot know until election night which scenario will unfold, regardless of how carefully we have analyzed the polls, early vote and other election-related data. The answer depends not only on how states count their votes, but also on the unknowable factor of how close the margins will be.

One thing is clear: The days of projecting a winner on election night itself are almost certainly over.

Read the full story here.

Speaking to a federal judge in July 2019, a flummoxed career Justice Department lawyer made a statement that summed up Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip and often chaotic form of governance.

“The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the president’s position on this issue,” Joshua Gardner told Maryland-based Judge George Hazel. 

Gardner was trying to explain to the judge why the Trump administration had completely reversed its legal position in a high-profile and ultimately doomed attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

The previous week, the Supreme Court had issued a ruling that blocked the administration from seeking to add the question, and the Justice Department had appeared to concede that there was no way of revisiting the issue, with time running out for the census papers to be finalized.

But then Trump stepped in with one of his signature tweets, saying the administration was “absolutely moving forward” with the plan. 

In many ways, the final week of a presidential campaign — for those of us who cover presidential politics — is akin to being in the eye of a hurricane. There’s an eerie calm that you know is about to disappear, but the anticipation is agonizing. There’s not a lot more to report or unearth. All you can do is wait (and continue to prepare).

That preparation includes running through every potential outcome and thinking about how the campaign might get there. For the purposes of this exercise, I want to essentially brain-dump everything I’m thinking about how this campaign could end and let that serve as a guide for how I’m watching the final days — and what I’ll be looking for on election night (or week).

In more than two dozen small newspapers across key battleground states today, voters will see a full-page ad from the Democratic Party reinforcing a central theme of Harris’ speech last night on the Ellipse.

“Unhinged. Unstable. Unfit to lead,” the ad reads in bold text above Trump’s mugshot. “Unfit to lead. We’re not going back.”

The Democratic National Committee says the ads will run in 25 suburban and exurban newspapers, with more than half appearing in the midwestern battlegrounds Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. A spokesperson says it’s the largest coordinated small newspaper buy from the DNC in the last three presidential cycles.

In a new ad from the progressive evangelical group Vote Common Good, Oscar-winning actor George Clooney reminds male voters that “you can vote any way you want — and no one will ever know” — including your Republican friends.

In the 30-second ad, first shared with NBC News, three men enter a polling place together, with one of them saying, “C’mon, boys, let’s make America great again,” nodding to Trump’s campaign slogan. But when one of the men enters the ballot booth, he sees his young daughter nearby and decides to vote for Harris.

“What happens in the booth stays in the booth,” Clooney, a high-profile Democratic donor, says on the voiceover track. “Vote Harris/Walz.”