Election 2024 live updates: trump backs Florida marijuana ballot measure ahead of Harris debate

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said tonight that he thought trump will perform well during tomorrow night's debate, adding that Harris was not "too bright."

Nehls said that trump "crushed" Biden during their debate in June and that he expects the same in the match-up against Harris.

“Now he's dealing with Kamala. I think I think she's a little weak. I don't think she's too bright,” he said.

Leading GOP figures, including trump, have taken to launching personal attacks on Harris.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., still hasn’t endorsed trump, and that isn’t changing in a hurry.

“We’ve offered to have a discussion,” he said today outside the Capitol. “I’ve told them I’m persuadable if they want to talk.”

He said that while trump is “superior” to Biden or Harris, “my enthusiasm has flagged.” In part, he doesn’t want another John Bolton type in a second trump administration.

The Republican Jewish Coalition launched an ad today tying Harris to members of Congress who have criticized Israel, including "squad" members like Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York; Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota; and Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan.

The ad argues that Harris has "joined the squad in sympathizing with antisemitic, anti-Israel protesters," using a clip of her saying she "will never silence young people."

"Kamala Harris is no ordinary Democrat," the ad says. "She stands with the squad, not with us."

trump repeated his false claim that children are undergoing transition-related surgery during their school day, worsening fears among some conservatives that educators are pushing children to become transgender and aiding transitions without parental awareness.

“Can you imagine you’re a parent and your son leaves the house and you say, ‘Jimmy, I love you so much, go have a good day in school,’ and your son comes back with a brutal operation? Can you even imagine this? What the hell is wrong with our country?” trump said Saturday at a campaign rally in Wisconsin, a vital swing state.

trump made similar remarks — saying children were returning home from school after having had surgical procedures — the previous weekend at an event hosted by Moms for Liberty, a parent activist group that has gained outsized influence in conservative politics in recent years.

Read the full story here.

Harris has used a stage and TV lighting to prep for tomorrow night's debate, a source familiar with the preparations confirmed to NBC News today.

The New York Times first reported the details about her use of lighting and a stage.

NBC News has reported that Harris has been rehearsing with Hillary Clinton’s former aide Philippe Reines, who has donned a navy blue suit and a red tie in trump’s signature style for the debate prep sessions.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney's office want a federal appeals court to deny trump's bid to pause sentencing in his state criminal case, saying that trump's argument is fatally flawed — and that the sentencing in his hush money case has been postponed anyway.

“The stay requested by defendant is not only legally unavailable, but also unnecessary in light of the state criminal court’s adjournment of the sentencing,” the DA's office said today in a filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

trump had been scheduled to be sentenced on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Sept. 18, but New York state Judge Juan Merchan last week pushed it back to Nov. 26. The delay came after trump's attorneys argued they might need more time to file a possible appeal of his impending ruling on the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity in the DA's case.

Gwen Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee's wife, squarely attributed the end to a constitutional right to abortion to trump, saying he "took down Roe and unleashed all of this chaos and all of this cruelty."

At an event in Raleigh, North Carolina, as part of the Harris-Walz campaign's reproductive freedom bus tour today, Gwen Walz said that every person should "have the freedom to build their own family," without interference, adding that it was "just as important" for people to freely decide "not to have children at all."

"It should be your choice, your choice, your choice, and not JD Vance’s and Donald trump’s," she said.

Jessica Leeds, who has alleged that trump groped her while she was seated next to him on an airplane in the late 1970s, said today that his comment that he could not have attacked her because she "would not have been the chosen one" was "really kind of bizarre."

“He assaulted me 50 years ago, and he continues to attack me today,” Leeds told reporters at a news conference outside trump Tower, calling his recent comments "spooky and difficult to process."

"He's a sexual predator," she said.

Harris left Pittsburgh this afternoon for Philadelphia ahead of tomorrow night's debate against trump.

Asked by reporters how she's doing, Harris responded "I’m good" and gave a thumbs up. She did not respond to a question about whether trump should be worried.

Harris has spent much of the past week in Pittsburgh prepping for her first debate with trump.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy's former chief of staff George Helmy was sworn in this evening to temporarily replace Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who resigned last month after he was convicted on corruption charges.

Helmy stood beside Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., as Senate President Pro Tempore Patty Murray, D-Wash., read the oath of office.

“He’s going to be a great addition, and it’s another ceiling being broken,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said after Helmy was sworn in. “He is the first member of the Coptic Church to become a senator in the United States of America.”

Oprah Winfrey will host a fundraising livestream for Harris on Sept. 19.

The event, "Unite for America 2024," will bring together groups that have held Zoom calls to support the Harris-Walz ticket after Biden dropped his re-election bid, such as Win With Black Women and White Dudes for Harris.

Winfrey made a surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month, endorsing Harris and delivering a speech to encourage voters to support the Democratic ticket.

Sen. John Fetterman, of Pennsylvania, a Harris ally, said today in an interview with MSNBC's Katy Tur that he thinks trump will have a "strong performance" but that Harris will win the debate.

“I do believe that Harris is going to win and trump is going to have a strong performance, too,” he said. “But I do not think it’s going to change the underlying dynamic that I’ve already been discussing since 2016.”

Fetterman said Harris has been preparing extensively for the debate, but he steered away from specifics. He did not comment on what he thinks she should focus on.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled today that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the battleground state’s presidential ballot in November, reversing a ruling from a lower court that had agreed to remove him last week.

The high court’s majority wrote in its order that Kennedy, who ended his independent White House bid last month and endorsed trump, did not point to a specific “source of law” that called on the state to take him off the ballot.

Read the full story here.

As Congress returns today from its August recess, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, renewed his pitch in a letter to colleagues for why he should take over as Senate GOP leader when Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, steps down from the job at the end of the year.

Cornyn is running against Senate Minority Whip John Thune, R-S.D., and Sen Rick Scott, R-Fla., for the role in November. The winner will need support from just a simple majority of Republican senators to become the next leader.

“This election is not about us but rather what is best for the conference and the nation,” Cornyn wrote in his letter to GOP senators. “I have benefitted from many private conversations with members and look forward to many more. The simple question raised repeatedly during this process sticks in my mind: What do members want in a new leader?”

Cornyn laid out a series of priorities that he hopes will answer that question. They include: protecting the legislative filibuster from potential Democratic challenges, continuing to increase funding for the military, extending the trump tax cuts that expire next year, increasing domestic energy production, rejecting "excessive regulatory overreach" and reducing government spending and deficits.

Vance took to social media this morning to bash Harris on immigration — and promote dubious claims of migrants' eating pets in Ohio.

“Months ago, I raised the issue of Haitian illegal immigrants draining social services and generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio. Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he wrote.

Similar claims about the supposed scourge have spread across right-wing social media circles in recent days, some based on the arrest of a woman in Canton, Ohio — about 175 miles from Springfield — for allegedly killing and eating a cat in front of her neighbors. There's no indication the woman is Haitian. Another source that has been cited is a Facebook poster who said their neighbor’s daughter’s friend had lost her cat and found it being carved up and eaten, according to the Springfield News-Sun.

In response to trump’s support of the Florida ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana, Harris campaign spokesperson Joseph Costello dismissed the notion that trump supports reforms to marijuana-related laws, citing the trump administration’s actions on the issue.

“Despite his blatant pandering, Donald trump cannot paper over his extensive record of dragging marijuana reform backward,” Costello said in a statement. “As president, trump cracked down on nonviolent marijuana offenses — undermining state legalization laws, opposed safe banking legislation, and even tried to remove protections for medical marijuana.”

“Donald trump does not actually believe in marijuana reform, but the American people are smart enough to see through his campaign lies,” he added.

The trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Harris campaign’s statement.

Voters in New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District will select a new member of Congress tomorrow this fall for the first time in 12 years, a prospect that has led to a contentious and expensive primary between influential Democrats.

Former New Hampshire Executive Councilor Colin van Ostern and former U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Maggie Goodlander are squaring off in the Democratic primary to replace six-term Rep. Annie Kuster, who is retiring.

Van Ostern jumped into the race first, quickly earning Kuster’s endorsement. But his straight shot to the Democratic nomination in a district rated “likely Democratic” by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report with Amy Walter was stifled when Goodlander, a longtime congressional and legal staffer in Washington, launched her campaign in May.

Read the full story here.

Several Indigenous voters spoke with NBC News at the Navajo Nation parade in Window Rock, Arizona, about the issues that matter most to them heading into the November election.

The voters cited infrastructure-related issues, such as road construction and access to water, electricity and broadband on their reservations. They also raised education, missing and murdered Indigenous women, gun control, inflation and immigrants as important issues to them.

Lomakoyva Manuel, 25, of Sacaton, Arizona, said she voted for Biden in 2020 but is now undecided. Missing and murdered Indigenous women is a top issue for her, and water and land rights are important to her tribe, she said.

“There’s a lot of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and there’s not a lot of light that sheds that,” she said. “And I feel like they should because I know some of my cousins, some of my aunties and some of my sisters, they’ve all been through that type of stuff, and we just need to do better.”

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, joins Andrea Mitchell to discuss the House GOP's release of a scathing report on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the White House’s response.

Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., said in an interview on MSNBC this afternoon that Republicans "cherry-picked facts" in their new report on the 2022 U.S. exit from Afghanistan and played up Harris' role in the withdrawal.

"They have contorted it, and it really does a disservice to the answers that the American public deserve,” Crow said on "Andrea Mitchell Reports," adding that Republicans refused to publicize transcripts of certain interviews because they give "information contrary to their narrative."

As Harris and trump are getting ready for their first debate, NBC News has new reporting on how both of the candidates are preparing. NBC News’ Aaron Gilchrist has more.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Monday that former President Donald trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio, should change the way they speak about women and focus instead on policy positions.

In an interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Haley was asked why she thinks Harris has a 14-point lead in the gender gap among women.

“I think it’s because Donald trump and JD Vance need to change the way they speak about women. You don’t need to call Kamala dumb. She didn’t get this far, you know, just by accident. ... She’s a prosecutor. You don’t need to go and talk about intelligence or looks or anything else. Just focus on the policies,” she said.

Haley said that when Republicans call Democratic women “dumb,” “Republican women get their backs up, too.”

Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney encouraged anti-trump Republicans and independents Sunday to consider voting for Harris, saying it’s “not enough” to write in someone other than former trump in the November election.

“Given how close this race is, in my view, again, it’s not enough. You have many Republicans out there who are saying, ‘Well, you know, we’re not going to vote for him, but we will write someone else in,’” Cheney said in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week.” “And I think that this time around, that’s not enough, that it’s important to actually cast a vote for Vice President Harris.”

Asked why she decided to support Harris, Cheney said that she had never voted for a Democrat in her 40 years of voting but that trump “poses a challenge and a threat fundamentally to the republic.”

Read the full story here.

Foreign policy and national security have not played a dominant role in this year’s campaign so far, but a fumbled answer at Tuesday’s presidential debate could damage either candidate in a race with no margin for error.

As trump and Harris head into the homestretch of debate preparation, who is coaching them on how to address the Israel-Hamas war, Russia’s onslaught against Ukraine and China’s efforts to overtake the U.S. as the world’s superpower?

There are stark differences between Harris and trump in their foreign policy positions and how they express them. And the current and former officials and lawmakers who advise each candidate reflect those divergent outlooks.

Read the full story here.

MOSINEE, Wis. — trump, who makes frequent false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through rampant fraud, warned over the weekend that he would try to imprison anyone who engages in “unscrupulous behavior” during this year’s race.

He issued the threat on Truth Social, his social media website, and repeated his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, accusing Democrats of “rampant Cheating and Skullduggery.”

“The 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” he wrote.

Read the full story here.

Harris is traveling to battleground North Carolina for two campaign events on Thursday, with a rally in Charlotte in the late afternoon and another in Greensboro in the evening. Both Harris and trump, who will face off in a debate tomorrow night, have been aggressively courting voters in the state, where polling shows the two in a dead heat.

Gold Star father Khizr Khan said in an interview on MSNBC that he was "disturbed" by trump's behavior during a recent visit to Arlington National Cemetery and Section 60, where service members killed in Afghanistan and Iraq are interred.

"I was disgusted," Khan told MSNBC's Ana Cabrera.

Referring to a picture of trump giving a thumbs-up and smiling at a service member's gravesite, Khan said, "I was disturbed to see that photo."

"I want his supporters to see that photo that he took on Aug. 24 in Arlington Cemetery, recently, his thumbs up as if this was a political event that was taking place," he continued. "He was there to exploit, he was there to use it for political purposes. He has, by his own actions, he has proven himself to be undeserving of being considered for re-election."

Musical artist John Legend will campaign for Harris today in Atlanta for "The Art of Voting" fireside chat, the campaign said.

The event is intended "to engage Georgia’s youth voters and community around electing Vice President Harris and Governor Walz," it said.

Legend is a longtime Democratic campaigner who performed at the Democratic National Convention last month as well as at Biden's inauguration in 2020. He is also an "EGOT" winner, having been awarded Emmys, Grammys, an Oscar and a Tony Award.

In the months before the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Biden administration officials “watered down” warnings about crumbling security and failed to launch an emergency evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies until it was too late, says a new report by House Republicans.

The scathing report from GOP lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee accuses President Joe Biden and his deputies, especially the acting ambassador to Kabul, of botching the 2021 pullout by reducing troop levels while keeping a large embassy staff in place and failing to prepare evacuation plans. The report was based on internal State Department documents and testimony from officials.

“Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, the committee’s chair. “At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.”

Read the full story here.

National Security Leaders for America, a bipartisan group of senior military leaders and elected and government officials, announced its support of Harris today.

The group said in a statement, signed by several generals and admirals, that Harris is “the best — and only — presidential candidate in this race who is fit to serve as our commander-in-chief."

“She has demonstrated her ability to take on the most difficult national security challenges in the Situation Room and on the international stage, from rallying our allies against Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine to standing shoulder to shoulder with our allies in the Indo-Pacific against China’s provocative actions, to advancing U.S. leadership on space and artificial intelligence. She is a steadfast supporter of service members, veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors,” the group wrote. 

After noting that Harris has met with service members around the world and spoken highly about "the extraordinary skill, discipline, and dedication" of U.S. armed services, the group decried trump as a “danger to our national security and our democracy.”

Walz has postponed a rally this evening in Reno, Nevada, because of wildfires in the West, the campaign said.

The Line Fire, east of Los Angeles, has been spreading in California and has led to evacuations of the affected areas.

Walz was planning to deliver remarks in Reno at 8:30 p.m. ET. He will still arrive in Nevada's Washoe County today and will participate in political engagements on a smaller scale.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will be in the spin room following the debate representing the Harris campaign in Philadelphia tomorrow, a source familiar with the plans tells NBC News.

Several other campaign surrogates will be in the spin room for the Harris campaign as well.

In an interview with Rickey Smiley that aired this morning, Harris detailed her mindset and what she’s doing to prepare for her debate against trump tomorrow night, saying that the former president “plays from this really old and tired playbook.”

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” Harris said in the interview, which was taped last week. “And we should be prepared for that. We should be prepared for the fact that he is not burdened by telling the truth. And we should be prepared for the fact that he is probably going to speak a lot of untruths.”

Harris said she intends to point out that trump “tends to fight for himself, not for the American people, and I think that’s going to come out during the course of the debate.”

Harris is looking to neutralize a glaring vulnerability that has jeopardized her prospects since she replaced Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee: voter frustration with high prices.

Harris is talking about the economy in hope of winning over voters who continue to feel nagging economic pain. It may be the most deliberate and clear break she has had with Biden since she took over the ticket.

Read the full story here.

trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform late last night that he supports a ballot measure in Florida to legalize marijuana.

“As I have previously stated, I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” the former president wrote. “We must also implement smart regulations, while providing access for adults, to safe, tested product. As a Floridian, I will be voting YES on Amendment 3 this November.”

trump said that if elected, his administration "will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to pass common sense laws, including safe banking for state authorized companies, and supporting states rights to pass marijuana laws, like in Florida, that work so well for their citizens.”

After a six-week summer recess, lawmakers return to the Capitol today facing a changed political landscape but a vexing, very familiar problem: figuring out how to avert a shutdown.

They have just three weeks to do so. Funding for the government runs out at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, and trump is urging Republicans to force a shutdown unless certain demands are met. A shutdown would close federal agencies and national parks while limiting public services and furloughing millions of workers just weeks before the election.

Read the full story here.

It was 2019, and the second Democratic presidential primary debate was unfolding in Detroit when then-Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii went for the jugular. 

Gabbard didn’t target Joe Biden, who at the time was the front-runner. 

Read the full story here.