Election 2024 live updates: Harris spars with Bret Baier in fiery Fox News interview; Trump holds town hall in Miami

Harris pointed to a February bipartisan border bill in an at-times heated exchange on Fox News about migration issues. She has previously said that she backs the bill and that she would sign it if it came to her desk.

Harris said Trump told Republicans to kill the bill "because he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem."

"And in this election, this is rightly a discussion that the American people want to have, and what they want are solutions, and they want a president of the United States who's not playing political games with the issue but actually is focused on fixing it," she continued.

Baier asked Harris during the Fox News interview, "When did you first notice that President Biden's mental faculties appeared diminished?" to which she did not provide a direct response.

"Joe Biden, I have watched in from the Oval Office to the Situation Room, and he has the judgment ... and experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people," she said.

When Baier asked whether she had concerns about Biden, Harris said, "Joe Biden is not on the ballot." He asked the question again, and Harris pivoted to Trump without answering his question directly.

"I think the American people have a concern about Donald Trump, which is why the people who know him best, including leaders of our national security community, have all spoken out, even people who worked for him in the Oval Office, worked with him in the Situation Room, and have said he is unfit and dangerous and should never be president of the United States again," she said.

Asked during the Fox News interview whether she supported using taxpayer funding to allow "prison inmates or detained illegal aliens transition to another gender," Harris said, "I will follow the law."

"I will follow the law, and it's a law that Donald Trump actually followed. You're probably familiar with — now it's a public report — that under Donald Trump's administration, these surgeries were available to, on a medical necessity basis, to people in the federal prison system."

The New York Times reported today that during the Trump administration, prisoners were offered certain gender-affirming care. Harris had previously indicated she supports such operations' being offered to prisoners, though the campaign has since distanced itself from her comments during her 2020 run.

Baier asked Harris about whether she owes an apology to families of victims of crimes allegedly committed by migrants.

"Those are tragic cases. There is no question about that. There is no question about that, and I can't imagine the pain that the families of those victims have experienced for a loss that should not have occurred," she said.

Harris said that if the border bill had been passed, it would have given agents more resources to deal with border-related issues.

In her Fox News interview, Harris used some of her strongest language yet to emphasize that her presidency would be a break from Biden's if she's elected.

"Let me be very clear: My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency, and like every new president that comes into office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences and fresh and new ideas," Harris said. "I represent a new generation of leadership."

She went on, highlighting plans that would differ, such as proposals to increase resources for small businesses and new homeowners.

Trump’s closing media strategy amounts to a series of home games — a schedule tilted heavily toward conservative outlets and away from mainstream interviews — while Harris is virtually visiting audiences across a broader swath of the political spectrum.

The divergent tacks offer hints about where the two candidates stand and how they hope to win, according to interviews with officials from both campaigns and outside political strategists. Trump is focused largely, but not entirely, on finding and mobilizing voters who already agree with him. Harris is trying to do the same with folks who prefer her, but she is also working to persuade a chunk of the electorate that remains undecided about her.

Read the full story here.

The judge overseeing the federal election interference case against Trump rejected his claim that he was actually concerned about foreign influence and interference in the 2020 election — rather than the false claims about domestic voter fraud that he repeated in the weeks before the Jan. 6 attack.

There is “no reason to believe” that Trump’s purported worries about foreign influence in the 2020 election “animated his concerns at the time,” U.S District Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote today, adding that Trump’s theories that such evidence would be relevant to his criminal case “do not withstand scrutiny.”

Read the full story here.

At a virtual briefing today, those working to turn out voters in favor of ballot measures to protect or expand abortion rights made it clear that their purpose was not to help Democrats get elected.

"The fundamental premise that these ballot measures were initiated in order to serve a Democratic Party turnout mechanism is just not correct," said Kelly Hall, the executive director of the Fairness Project, a nonpartisan group that supports ballot measures. "Candidates need to do that work themselves if they want to see an additional boost from being on the ballot with abortion measures."

Democrats in states like Florida, Arizona and Montana — all of which feature competitive statewide elections and ballot measures seeking to expand or enshrine abortion rights — have pointed to those ballot measures as reasons to expect high turnout for their candidates next month.

Asked about Trump's referring to Democrats as "the enemies from within," Vance targeted Democrats and said that if Trump wins, he will not let there be violence.

"If you have people who were rioting in American streets, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, whatever their political persuasion is, we’re not going to let that happen," he said. "We believe in law and order in this country.”

Onstage in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Vance said he does not believe Trump lost the 2020 election. Asked whether Trump lost, he said, "No."

“There were serious problems in 2020. So did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words I would use," Vance said.

It is the first time Vance has explicitly said "no" when asked whether Trump lost the 2020 election. He previously has said he saw issues with the election, including at the vice presidential debate, where he said, "I'm focused on the future" instead of answering whether Trump lost.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has asked Georgia’s Court of Appeals to reinstate six charges against Trump and others that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed this year. 

McAfee said the counts were inadequately charged in the original indictment and would not allow defendants to prepare a proper defense. 

Willis disagrees, writing: “The indictment supplied Cross-Appellees with sufficient information to prepare a defense intelligently and to protect them against double jeopardy. By extensively setting out the factual allegations and context of the solicitations, the counts sufficiently put Cross-Appellees on notice of the conduct with which they were charged.”

An army of political propaganda accounts powered by artificial intelligence posed as real people on X to argue in favor of Republican candidates and causes, according to a research report out of Clemson University.

The report details a coordinated AI campaign using large language models — the type of AI that powers convincing, human-seeming chat bots like ChatGPT — to reply to other users.

While it’s unclear who operated or funded the network, its focus on particular political pet projects with no clear connection to foreign countries indicates it’s an American political operation, rather than one run by a foreign government, the researchers said.

Republican megadonors are opening up their checkbooks — and not being shy about the number of zeros they write — to help Trump and other Republicans as Harris’ fundraising operation breaks records. 

Major pro-Trump super PACs pulled in more than $200 million from major Republican donors over the summer, according to new campaign finance filings, including Miriam Adelson (the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and the wife of the late casino executive Sheldon Adelson), Tesla CEO Elon Musk, venture capitalists Marc Andreesen and Ben Horowitz, former Marvel Chairman Ike Perlmutter, shipping magnate Dick Uihlein and more.

And that massive total doesn’t include fundraising by the main pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc., which will file its fundraising reports by Sunday.

At the Univision town hall, Trump repeated his argument that nothing was done wrong on Jan. 6, 2021.

"Nothing done wrong. And action was taken — strong action. Ashley Babbitt was killed. Nobody was killed. There were no guns down there," he said when he was asked why someone should support him after the insurrection.

"We didn’t have guns. The others had guns, but we didn’t have guns. And when I say we, these are people that walked — this was a tiny percentage of the overall, which nobody sees and nobody shows. But that was a day of love. From the standpoint of the millions," he continued.

At a Univision town hall in Miami, Trump defended his comments about Haitian immigrants’ eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio, telling voters he was “just reading people’s reporting.”

His comment was in response to a question from an undecided GOP voter about whether Trump actually believed the conspiracy theory he spread about Springfield's immigrant community.

“I was just saying what was reported, that’s been reported, and eating other things, too, that they’re not supposed to,” Trump said. 

While leaving Detroit, Harris told reporters that it was "quite bizarre" that Trump referred to himself as the "father of IVF" at his women's town hall.

"What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working towards growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk," she said.

Trump and GOP leaders in Congress have expressed support for in vitro fertilization after the Alabama Supreme Court ruling, which state Republicans and Democrats joined to reverse.

Asked to respond to Harris' comment, Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said "the father of IVF" comment was "a joke President Trump made in jest when he was enthusiastically answering a question about IVF as he strongly supports widespread access to fertility treatments for women and families."

Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., gaggled with the media after he dropped off his ballot at a drop box in Phoenix this morning. NBC News asked Gallego whether he’s confident his Republican opponent, Kari Lake, will accept the results of the election.

“I trust the people of Arizona are saner and smarter than Kari Lake when it comes to the results of the election,” said Gallego, who was holding his baby daughter during the interview.

“I don’t believe she’s going to accept the loss,” Gallego said of Lake.

Philip Esformes, whose 20-year prison sentence for a massive, $1.3 billion Medicare fraud scheme was commuted in 2020 by then-President Donald Trump, was arrested over the weekend in Florida on domestic violence-related charges.

Esformes is at least the seventh person who received executive clemency from Trump and has since been charged with new crimes, according to The New York Times, which first reported this latest arrest.

In August, a convicted New York drug dealer and predatory lender named Jonathan Braun, whose 10-year prison term Trump commuted in 2021, was charged with assaulting his father-in-law and his wife in separate incidents.

Court records show that Esformes was arrested Saturday and then charged with tampering with a victim or witness, and with criminal mischief involving property damage.

Read the full story here.

Vice President Harris’ presidential campaign is continuing to invest resources in targeting Latino voters, releasing a new advertisement today that features the vice president speaking directly to the nation’s second largest ethnic or racial group.

The new ad, titled “Hard Work,” is narrated by Harris herself. In it, the democratic candidate touts her middle-class upbringing and elements of her “Opportunity Economy” agenda.

“So I get it, you’re out there working hard for your families, but some corporations take advantage of crises to unfairly raise prices on everyday needs. That makes it harder to live, to raise a family,” Harris said in the advertisement. “Donald Trump is focused on the billionaires and corporations. But as your president, I’ll work for you.”

Officials from the Carter Center say the 39th president, Jimmy Carter, has voted by mail today in Georgia.

During his speech at the Democratic National Convention, his grandson Jason Carter said his grandfather was looking forward to voting for Harris.

"She reminds us all that the promise of America remains unchanged. We are one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all, and my grandfather knows that with her as our next president, we will keep that promise," Jason Carter said at the time.

The former president turned 100 on Oct. 1.

During a women's town hall on Fox News in Cumming, Georgia, Trump referred to himself as "the father of IVF," but added that he asked Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., to explain what in vitro fertilization was during a phone call.

"I said explain IVF very quickly, and within about two minutes, I understood it," Trump said. "I said, no, no, we're totally in favor of IVF."

He said the call took place after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos created through IVF are considered children.

Biden will be awarded Germany’s highest honor during a visit to Berlin on Friday. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced today that Biden will travel to Germany on Thursday.

The German government says it will bestow its Grand Cross special class of the Order of Merit on Biden in recognition of his decades of contributions to the German-American bond. Biden will be the second U.S. president to receive the honor after George H.W. Bush in 1993.

A team of federal prosecutors led by special counsel Jack Smith said in a filing Wednesday that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump bears responsibility for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

In a filing responding to Trump’s attempt to dismiss the case, Smith’s team said it “is incorrect” for Trump’s team to assert that the superseding indictment returned against Trump in August does not show that Trump bears responsibility for the events of Jan. 6.

Trump, Smith’s team said, “willfully caused others” to obstruct the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory by repeating his false claims of election fraud and giving “false hope” to his supporters who believed that then-Vice President Mike Pence might overturn the election, and by “pressuring” Pence and legislators to accept fraudulent certificates as part of the fake electors scheme.

“Those allegations link the defendant’s actions on January 6 directly to his efforts to corruptly obstruct the certification proceeding,” Smith’s team wrote.

Read the full story here.

New federal campaign fundraising filings released yesterday disclosed that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has seeded a group called America PAC with $75 million from July through September.

But other documents from that same day detail the massive scope of that group's spending to boost Republicans like Trump.

Newest filings, covering America PAC spending through Oct. 15, show the group has spent more than $100 million to support Trump in the presidential race. And the group has spent in more than a dozen House races, boosting Republican congressional candidates like Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, Rep. Ken Calvert of California, Rep. Michelle Steel of California and former Ohio state Sen. Kevin Coughlin.

The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that convicted felons who served their sentences are allowed to vote, after the state’s top election official sought to keep them from casting ballots ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

Nebraska has historically restored the voting rights of former felons two years after they completed the terms of their sentences. Earlier this year, state legislators voted on a bipartisan basis to eliminate the two-year waiting period. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers later argued that only the state’s board of pardons could restore voting rights, and Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen ordered local registrars to stop letting all people with previous felony convictions vote, arguing the laws enfranchising them were unconstitutional.

On Wednesday, Nebraska’s top court disagreed, writing that state officials had not convinced them the law, known as L.B. 20, was unconstitutional.

Nebraskans with felony convictions now have a short window to register to vote. The deadline to register online is Friday, Oct. 18, while the in-person deadline is Oct. 25.

Read the full story here.

A Wisconsin county clerk's office is using a "Star Wars"-themed video to bolster confidence in election integrity in the state.

In the video from the Dane County Clerk's Office, a lightsaber-wielding character named Chad Vader tries to seize control of a voting station.

"I have gathered intelligence reports from several reliable subreddits that the security of this election station has been compromised," Vader tells two clerks, calling the voting machines "suspect."

One of the clerks tells him he finds his "lack of faith disturbing." "There are many levels of security to make sure your ballot is counted correctly," he tells Vader before ticking through some of their security measures.

The thwarted villain then storms off, declaring, "I will raise hell about this on Facebook." The public service announcement is Chad Vader's second appearance for the county, which includes the state capital of Madison. He did a video promoting absentee voting in 2020.

In response to Trump's town hall on Fox News, which is airing today, the Harris campaign criticized Trump for doubling down on calling Democrats "enemies from within," saying Trump "plots to surround himself with yes-men who enable his worst instincts."

“Those who know Donald Trump best and worked alongside him are warning us about the risk of a second Trump term, where he would have virtually unchecked power and no guardrails even as he is increasingly unhinged and unstable,” Harris campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said in a statement.

In a pretaped Fox News interview that aired over the weekend, Trump referred to Democrats, like Rep. Adam Schiff of California, as the "enemy from within" and labeled them as "more dangerous" than U.S. adversaries like China and Russia.

Trump is doubling down on his claims that Democrats are “the enemy from within,” with Harris warning that a second Trump term would be “dangerous” and that he’s seeking “unchecked power.” Meanwhile, Harris is trying to shore up support from Black voters with a new round of interviews. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for “TODAY.”

Former first lady Michelle Obama will headline a rally for her nonpartisan group "When We All Vote" in Atlanta on Oct. 29 in an effort to mobilize first-time voters.

The event will feature as-yet-unnamed celebrity co-chairs and local and national performers as well as Georgia student leaders, the group's release said.

The rally is not a Harris campaign event. Although her husband, former President Barack Obama, is actively campaigning for the Harris-Walz ticket, the former first lady has not appeared at a campaign event since her speech at the Democratic National Convention. That's in part because of concerns about security since the assassination attempts against Trump, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Georgia, with its 16 electoral votes, is a key battleground state for both candidates to win in November. In 2020, President Joe Biden defeated Trump in the state by fewer than 12,000 votes.

Trump’s closing message to a number of different groups increasingly includes this harsh line: Members of the group not voting for him need to have their “head examined.”

“Any African American or Hispanic that votes for Kamala … you got to have your head examined,” Trump said during an Atlanta rally Tuesday night. “They are screwing you.”

It’s part of an ongoing trend of the former president telling specific demographic groups they deserve of ridicule or have something wrong with their mental state if they’re not voting for him, one that has picked up in a recent weeks.

In recent weeks, the commentary has focused on ethnicity, age and religion.

Read the full story here.

Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., endorsed Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, of Pennsylvania, today, which is Cheney's first House endorsement of the 2024 election cycle.

“Susan and I served together in the House, and while we may not agree on everything, I know that she holds a deep respect for the integrity of our democracy," Cheney said in a statement.

"This election we must look beyond partisanship to ensure we defeat election deniers and support people like Susan, who are serious leaders, and will do what’s right for their district and our nation.”

Harris is set to deliver a message of unity and patriotism today in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, flanked by more than 100 Republicans who have endorsed her for president.

The vice president plans to spotlight how Trump violated his oath to uphold the Constitution when he refused to accept the 2020 presidential election results and engaged in a peaceful transfer of power, a senior Harris campaign official said.

Harris plans to emphasize what she says is the threat of a second Trump term to the nation's military, especially after he said he would turn the troops against Americans he considers "the enemy from within," the official said.

Harris will deliver the speech in Washington Crossing, which the official noted is not far from where George Washington and thousands of troops crossed the Delaware River before a major victory in the Revolutionary War.

Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, one of two Republicans who served on the House Jan. 6 committee, will speak at the event, the official said.

A new ad from Democrat Michelle Vallejo, who is challenging GOP Rep. Monica de la Cruz in Texas's 15th district, features a woman who had to leave the state for emergency abortion care.

“I was 13 weeks pregnant when doctors told us one of my twins wouldn’t survive. I was devastated, but because of Texas’ abortion ban, I had to leave the state to save my healthy baby’s life—and my own," Lauren Miller says in the ad.

After sharing her story, a narrator tells viewers, "Monica De La Cruz supports this cruel abortion ban."

Vallejo's campaign is one of many Democratic campaigns in Texas this year trying to tie their opponents to the state's six-week abortion ban, a move they hope will move the needle among voters who may not usually vote for Democrats.

The Small Business Administration says it has exhausted funds for its disaster loan program following increased demand from Hurricane Helene, with Congress being in recess.

“Until Congress appropriates additional funds, the SBA is pausing new loan offers for its direct, low-interest, long-term loans to disaster survivors,” the SBA said in a statement yesterday.

“However, SBA is encouraging individuals and small businesses to continue to apply for loans given assurances from congressional leaders that additional funding will be provided upon Congress’ return in November.”

For a country that seems evenly divided over politics and polarized about many cultural issues, a durable majority does agree about one thing: They don’t like the Biden presidency.

And despite the machinations that resulted in President Joe Biden not being on the ballot this election season, his unpopularity is still the mood music of this election.

From his border policy to the economy he has been presiding over to turmoil overseas, there isn’t a lot about the Biden years that voters love in this moment. It’s why Trump has basically a 50-50 chance to return to the White House, just four years after voters fired him.

Read the full story here.

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama has begun stumping for Vice President Kamala Harris. Bill Clinton is holding a series of campaign events for her in battleground states. 

Yet the Democratic superstar many members of the party would like to see helping Harris has been absent from the campaign trail so far.

With just 20 days until the election, Michelle Obama has worked behind the scenes to boost turnout in key swing states, but she has yet to schedule an official appearance for Harris since the Democratic National Convention. Two people familiar with the matter said she has expressed fresh concerns about security following two assassination attempts against former President Donald Trump.

Read the full story here.

Elon Musk has given nearly $75 million to America PAC, the super PAC he created to support Trump, according to a campaign finance filing from the group late yesterday. 

The filing with the Federal Election Commission was the first public look at Musk’s political giving this year after months of speculation about how much money he would contribute to pro-Trump efforts. It shows that he has vaulted into the top ranks of Republican donors. 

Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is the world’s wealthiest person, with a net worth of $241 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. 

He established America PAC in May to support Trump’s campaign to return to the White House. The super PAC is focused on voter turnout efforts in potential swing states such as Pennsylvania, where Musk recently appeared onstage with Trump. 

Read the full story here.

As she steps up her appeals to Black voters, Harris appeared on a popular Black radio program yesterday, saying she is still open to slavery reparations and slamming Trump for allegedly sending Covid tests to Russia “when Black people were dying” back home.

In a wide-ranging live radio town hall in Detroit hosted by syndicated radio host Charlamagne Tha God, Harris faced pointed questions from the host and his guests, some of whom said they felt Black voters have been taken for granted by Democrats while getting “very little in return.”

Harris, who has been trying to stem Democrats’ small but steady erosion of support from voters of color, spoke about her upbringing in Oakland, California, in the Black church and at Howard University, but said she knew she had to “earn every vote.”

While she often tells supporters on the campaign trail that she is the underdog, she said yesterday: “I’m going to win, but it’s tight.” 

Read the full story here.

Reproductive Freedom For All endorsed Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., for re-election today in a statement first shared with NBC News.

Mini Timmaraju, president of the nonprofit organization, which advocates for reproductive rights, said Casey is “meeting the moment” and “recognizes that action is needed to protect abortion rights and access nationwide.”

“With anti-abortion Republicans like David McCormick more focused than ever on a national ban, we need Sen. Casey in the Senate to defend our rights,” Timmaraju said.

The House Democratic campaign arm is shelling out $3 million for digital ads in nonpresidential battleground states, meant to boost the party's voter turnout efforts with a message focused on Project 2025.

The ad buy, details of which were shared first with NBC News, will run in seven states — including California, Iowa, Colorado and Oregon — on streaming and social media platforms. While those states are far from front of mind at the presidential level, they are the places that could make or break Democratic efforts to retake control of the House of Representatives this fall. 

Democrats have targeted several red districts up and down California, while Oregon’s 5th District, Iowa’s 1st District and Colorado’s 8th District are also seen as battlegrounds at the House level. Democrats need to net four seats in order to take control of the chamber.