What's happening on the campaign trail today
- The scheduled Sept. 10 ABC News debate between Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris was put in jeopardy today after the former president lashed out at the network and said he preferred another outlet host it. The campaigns are also at odds over whether the candidates should have "hot" microphones during the debate.
- Trump appealed to service members today, stopping in Detroit to address National Guard officers. Several speakers at the Democratic National Convention last week blasted Trump on the military, repeating claims from a report in The Atlantic that he called some service members "suckers" and "losers." Trump has denied the allegation.
- Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who ran for president in 2020 as a Democrat before she left the party, endorsed Trump today.
- Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, had no events scheduled today. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is hitting the campaign trail, speaking at two campaign events in New York.
Democrats sue over new election rules in battleground Georgia
The Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party of Georgia and several individuals, including county board members, sued the Georgia State Election Board today over new election rules that critics say conflict with state law mandating certification of election results.
At the heart of the civil suit, filed in Fulton County, are two items the election board passed this month: the reasonable inquiry rule and the examination rule.
The suit says that those rules conflict with Georgia’s statutes governing certification and that the election board did not follow procedures for rulemaking as required by state law. It therefore asks the court to pause the two rules to the extent that they conflict with existing law.
Uniformed service member's wife turns back toward Trump to signal 'disapproval' at National Guard event
Tanairi Martinez, the wife of a uniformed service member, turned her back toward Trump as a majority of a crow stood and applauded his remarks to the National Guard Association in Detroit today.
Martinez told NBC News that the move was intended to signal her disapproval.
“I did take a risk, and I do have to evaluate my behavior, because it could potentially come back to my husband, who is a service member, but at the same time, I could not not do something, and I thought that that was the best way that I could show my disapproval while being respectful,” Martinez said.
Martinez also said that she started to shout something during Trump's remarks but that her husband covered her mouth.
In his remarks, Trump criticized Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan war withdrawal and was endorsed by former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.
Bipartisan task force on Trump shooting visits site of assassination attempt
The bipartisan House task force investigating the attempted assassination of Trump toured the Butler Farm Show grounds in Pennsylvania today to see the location of the July 13 shooting firsthand.
Led by Reps. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and Jason Crow, D-Colo., the task force walked the grounds of the rally site and climbed onto the roof where a gunman shot at Trump.
“It’s a difference between day and night,” Kelly, the task force's chair, said of visiting the site in person versus seeing photos and other accounts of the shooting.
“We’ve received several briefings, one to the members or including the members, just last week with the FBI,” said Crow, the ranking member of the task force. He added that there had also been a staff-level briefing from the Secret Service.
Kelly and Crow said the task force has been in regular communication with federal agencies.
Crow reiterated that the House lawmakers on the ground today are the “sole task force of jurisdiction for the House of Representatives for this investigation, and we are proceeding that way.” Earlier today a group of House Republicans held their own event at the Heritage Foundation in Washington focused on the Secret Service’s actions.
Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., said in Butler today that the task force is taking over all investigations started by other House committees.
“So as we go forward, this is the committee that will have the ability to subpoena records,” she said. “If we do feel that we aren’t getting full and complete disclosure from any federal law enforcement agency, we will be able to subpoena them, to require them to produce documents and to produce witnesses.”
Tulsi Gabbard endorses Trump
Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii endorsed Trump at a campaign event for veterans in Michigan. She cited her experience as an Iraq War veteran, suggesting Trump better understands “the grave responsibility that a president and commander in chief bears for every single one of our lives.”
Gabbard, a former vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. She left the Democratic Party in 2022.
Gabbard, who had her own memorable exchange with Harris on the debate stage in 2019, had been tapped to help Trump prepare to debate with the vice president, campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt confirmed this month.
The Democratic National Committee cited Gabbard today when it blasted Trump over his recent endorsements.
“Rather than focusing on earning the support of hardworking Americans, Trump is more fixated on winning the backing of extremists like Gabbard and RFK Jr. — and they’ll do nothing but weigh down his sinking ship of a campaign,” DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd said in a statement.
Special counsel Jack Smith urges appeals court to revive Trump classified documents case
Federal prosecutors asked an appeals court today to restore Trump’s classified documents case, pushing back against Trump’s claims that Jack Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the Constitution.
“The Attorney General validly appointed the Special Counsel, who is also properly funded,” Assistant Special Counsel James Pearce, a member of Smith’s team, wrote in a brief filed with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “In ruling otherwise, the district court deviated from binding Supreme Court precedent, misconstrued the statutes that authorized the Special Counsel’s appointment, and took inadequate account of the longstanding history of Attorney General appointments of special counsels.”
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, last month granted his attorneys’ request to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that Smith’s appointment as special counsel violated the Constitution’s appointments and appropriations clauses.
Walz to address firefighters union convention with the group's endorsement up for grabs
Walz will address one of the largest unions that has yet to make a presidential endorsement when he speaks at the International Association of Firefighters convention in Boston this week.
It will be Walz’s third solo campaign event since he joined Harris on the Democratic ticket and his second to involve a major labor gathering. Walz’s first stand-alone address as the vice presidential nominee was to the AFSCME convention in Los Angeles, and Harris campaign officials say Walz, a former teachers' union member, is likely to continue playing a major role in the ticket’s labor mobilization efforts into the fall.
The firefighters union was the first major union to endorse Joe Biden when he launched his 2020 campaign. But, under new leadership, it has been taking a more deliberate approach to the 2024 race. An IAFF spokesperson would not comment on whether the union plans to make an endorsement this week.
Harris addressed the IAFF’s gathering in Washington in March, when Biden was still the Democratic standard-bearer. IAFF General President Edward Kelly told members then that union leadership would survey members about a variety of issues before it proceeded with a potential 2024 endorsement.
In his remarks Wednesday, Walz is expected to tout the Biden administration’s support for legislation that would ensure injured firefighters would retain full retirement benefits if they retired early. Biden also appeared with Kelly last year to highlight another major IAFF priority: a federal grant program for local jurisdictions to hire first responders.
While many major labor unions that had endorsed Biden have quickly thrown their support to Harris, the IAFF and the Teamsters have yet to endorse a presidential candidate this year. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who spoke at the Republican National Convention in July, has noted his union has often waited until after the party conventions to make an endorsement, as it did in 2020 when it backed the Biden-Harris ticket.
Arizona police group endorses Rep. Ruben Gallego for Senate
The Arizona Police Association endorsed Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego over Republican Kari Lake in the state’s hotly contested Senate race.
The same association threw its support behind Trump — a close ally of Lake's — at his rally in Glendale on Friday.
"We recognize the importance of having a U.S. Senator that can bring people together to improve society for all. We believe Congressman Gallego will be that senator," the group's president, Justin Harris, said in a statement on X today. The statement said Gallego "has continuously fought for robust, increased funding for America's Law Enforcement."
Right-wing Colorado man arrested in connection with threats against Trump opponents
A Colorado man has been arrested by the FBI and charged with making threats against elections officials, a judge and federal law enforcement agents.
Teak Brockbank, 45, of Cortez, was arrested Friday and charged with transmitting interstate threats.
An FBI special agent indicated in a redacted affidavit that investigators had been looking into threats made on two right-wing social media websites — Rumble and Gab — and determined that Brockbank went by the username “Teakty4u” and made threats against numerous officials. Brockbank, federal prosecutors wrote, “also has a lengthy history of illegally possessing firearms,” and the FBI affidavit refers to slogans associated with the fringe QAnon movement.
The inside story of how Trump was persuaded to back bitcoin
Trump has been increasingly bullish on bitcoin as he looks to brand himself as the pro-crypto nominee for president.
Turning Trump from a skeptic into a sudden bitcoin evangelist took the work, behind closed doors, of a small army of crypto advocates who were able to maneuver their way into his inner circle. In particular, three friends in Puerto Rico came together to try to convince him of bitcoin’s value and to eventually make that position loud and clear last month at the biggest bitcoin conference of the year, in Nashville, Tennessee.
There was also the potential of huge amounts of donor money from an industry that sees itself as under constant attack from the Biden-Harris administration and the heavy regulatory hand of SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
The bitcoin community promised this year to turn out $100 million and 5 million votes for Trump. CNBC was told an update on fundraising numbers is coming soon.
Trump says he'd rather debate on another network and leave mics on
Trump slammed ABC News as “the single worst network for unfairness” and called it “disgraceful” when he was asked whether he still plans to participate in the Sept. 10 debate against Harris hosted by the network.
Trump — who is suing ABC News, alleging defamation — criticized the network’s anchor George Stephanopoulos, contributor Donna Brazile and Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl over Stephanopoulos’ interview yesterday with Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., an ally of Trump's.
“When I looked at the hostility of that, I said, why am I doing it? Let’s do it with another network,” he told NBC News in Falls Church, Virginia, after he attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery this morning on the third anniversary of the attack that killed 13 U.S. service members in Kabul during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Trump suggested that the debate should be held instead on NBC, CBS, Fox or CNN.
“I think ABC really should be shut out,” he said. “I’d much rather do it on NBC. I’d much rather do it on CBS. Frankly, I think CBS is very unfair but the best of the group, and certainly I'd do it on Fox. I’d even do it on CNN; I thought CNN treated us very fairly the last time.”
Asked whether he wants the microphone to be muted in the debate whenever he’s not speaking, Trump said he’d rather keep the mics on, although he claimed both sides had agreed to keep them muted when the other candidate is speaking, much like the rules in the June debate between Trump and Biden.
“I don’t know; doesn’t matter to me. I’d rather have it probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time,” Trump said. “In that case, it was muted. I didn’t like it the last time, but it worked out fine.
“We agreed to the same rules, same rules and same specifications, and I think that’s probably what it should be, but they’re trying to change it,” he added. “The truth is they’re trying to get out of it because she doesn’t want to debate. She’s not a good debater; she’s not a smart person. She doesn’t want to debate.”
Harris campaign spokesman Brian Fallon said the campaign has proposed having both candidates’ mics on throughout the debate.
Trump suggested yesterday that he’s considering backing out of the Sept. 10 debate on ABC because of the interview with Cotton, which he described as "ridiculous and biased."
“They’ve got a lot of questions to answer!!!” he wrote on Truth Social last night, adding, “Stay tuned!!!”
Speaker Mike Johnson announces Gold Medal ceremony for 13 servicemembers killed in Kabul attack
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., marked the third anniversary of the terrorist attack at the Kabul airport today by announcing that lawmakers will hold a ceremony next month awarding the the Congressional Gold Medal to the 13 U.S. service members killed in the attack.
Families of the service members will be presented with the medals in the Capitol Rotunda on Sept. 10, the same day as the first planned debate between Harris and Trump. Trump has said he might skip the debate.
While both parties backed 2021 legislation posthumously awarding the medals, Republicans — and some of the Gold Star families — have argued that President Joe Biden is responsible for the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal in Afghanistan that included the deadly attack on U.S. troops and scores of Afghan civilians trying to flee the country.
Democrats have cast blame on Trump for striking a deal with the Taliban for the U.S. to exit Kabul but providing no plan for the withdrawal.
Johnson, along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., and Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., will speak at the ceremony.
“Three years ago, 13 brave American soldiers gave the ultimate sacrifice during the Abbey Gate explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan," Johnson said in a statement. "America owes these heroes and their families an incalculable debt of gratitude, and we continue to mourn their losses and honor their memories.”
“Their stories of these 13 courageous souls are truly inspiring, as our nation lost brothers, sisters, husbands, and fathers, from every part of this country," he said. "And while their post ended that fateful day three years ago, their legacies live on through their families, friends and fellow soldiers.”
Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery today to participate in a wreath-laying ceremony on the third anniversary of the attack on Abbey Gate outside an airport in Kabul that killed 13 U.S. service members.
Judge to hear arguments in Arizona 'fake electors' case
A judge is set to hear arguments today in the Arizona “fake electors” case involving a scheme by Trump allies to overturn Biden’s win in the battleground state during the 2020 presidential election.
A month after the 2020 election, 11 Trump supporters signed a certificate claiming to be Arizona’s 11 electors even though Biden had won the state by more than 10,000 votes.
Former Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani, Christina Bobb and Jenna Ellis; former Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward and her husband, Michael Ward; and Greg Safsten, the former Arizona GOP executive director, are among the 18 defendants in the case.
The Trump allies pleaded not guilty after state Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, released an indictment charging them with fraud, forgery and conspiracy.
Trump makes stop at Arlington National Cemetery
Trump is stopping at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to commemorate the third anniversary of the terrorist attack outside Kabul's international airport during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The attack killed 13 American service members and more than 100 Afghan civilians.
His stop comes on the heels of a comment this month in which he called the Presidential Medal of Freedom — a civilian award — "better" than the Medal of Honor, is the top military award, because those who receive it are often dead or injured.
‘Demstock’ brings together rural Pennsylvania Democrats who want to ‘jam things up’ for Trump
BROOKLINE, Pa. — Hundreds of Pennsylvania’s rural Democratic voters spent the weekend at “Demstock.” Think Woodstock in 1969, with some attendees camping out at the venue, but instead of performances from the Grateful Dead and Jimi Hendrix, it was all about politics. Attendees bonded over feeling isolated in their largely Republican communities and their hope to “drive up the margins” in the match-up between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the critical battleground state.
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a candidate for auditor general, wooed crowds during a “Demstock Dinner,” where Fetterman joked about stolen yard signs — a relatable phenomenon for many of the rural Democrats in the room — and called rural Democrats “unsung heroes.”
“You are the secret,” Fetterman said, adding, “Real power is in red counties with all of you.”
Harris and Trump at odds over debate rules
Trump and Harris campaigns are at an impasse over the rules for the presidential debate on Sept. 10.
Harris' campaign says it wants hot mics during the debate — the opposite of how the Atlanta faceoff between President Joe Biden and Trump was conducted, when the Biden team wanted the mics muted while the other candidate was speaking.
The Trump campaign claimed the Harris team is asking for other rule changes as well, including allowing the candidates to sit and refer to notes, which Harris campaign spokesman Brian Fallon denied.
“We have told ABC and other networks seeking to host a possible October debate that we believe both candidates’ mics should be live throughout the full broadcast," Fallon said in a statement. "Our understanding is that Trump’s handlers prefer the muted microphone because they don’t think their candidate can act presidential for 90 minutes on his own.
"The Vice President is ready to deal with Trump’s constant lies and interruptions in real time," Fallon added. "Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”
Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller countered that it had accepted ABC's debate rules under the same terms as the CNN debate between Biden and the former president.
"The Harris camp, after having already agreed to the CNN rules, asked for a seated debate, with notes, and opening statements," Miller said in a statement. "We said no changes to the agreed upon rules.
"This seems to be a pattern for the Harris campaign," Miller said. "They won’t allow Harris to do interviews, they won’t allow her to do press conferences, and now they want to give her a cheat-sheet for the debate. My guess is that they’re looking for a way to get out of any debate with President Trump."
The dispute over the rules, first reported by Politico, comes after a Trump post on social media last night suggesting he might back out of the debate because of what he called a “biased” interview on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I watched ABC FAKE NEWS this morning, both lightweight reporter Jonathan Carl’s (K?) ridiculous and biased interview of Tom Cotton (who was fantastic!), and their so-called Panel of Trump Haters, and I ask, why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Trump wrote.
The Harris campaign says it has raised more than $500 million since President Joe Biden dropped out in July, while the Trump campaign says it has raised $139 million in July. NBC News’ Adrienne Broaddus has the latest.
Trump tells readers to 'stay tuned,' referring to the Sept. 10 debate
Trump reiterated his criticism of ABC News in a Truth Social post yesterday, calling a reporter a "lightweight" who conducted a "ridiculous and biased interview" with Sen. Tom Cotton yesterday before going on to criticize other people who work at the network.
"They’ve got a lot of questions to answer!!!" he said.
Trump ended his post writing, "Stay tuned!!!"
NBC News reached out to the Trump campaign to ask whether the post indicated that Trump was reconsidering participating in the Sept. 10 debate against Harris on ABC News.
Emhoff to travel to Long Island today
Emhoff will travel today to Long Island, New York, where he is expected to speak at campaign receptions on the heels of the Democratic National Convention.
He will make stops in Water Mill and Sag Harbor.
Emhoff was in Chicago for the convention. He posted a video yesterday showing him visiting Wrigley Field with his family during the trip to the Windy City.
Where's Trump?
Trump will be in Detroit, addressing the National Guard Association of the United States.
More than 4,200 Guard officers, their spouses and other guests registered for this year's conference, which occurs annually. Defense Department leaders and lawmakers address the association every year, and during presidential election years, the Democratic and Republican nominees are invited to do so, as well.
Trump spoke to the association as the Republican nominee in 2016.