October 24, 2024, presidential campaign news

Our live coverage has ended. Follow the latest 2024 election news here or read through the posts below.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that former President Donald Trump is now “more unhinged, more unstable” and more dangerous than when she faced him in the 2016 presidential election.

Clinton – the first woman to capture a major-party nomination for president – also drew a contrast between her 2016 effort and Kamala Harris’ campaign, saying the vice president has centered her message on reminding voters how dangerous Trump could be for the country.

Read more on the interview here.

Supporters of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, hold signs during a campaign event with former President Barack Obama at the James R Hallford Stadium in Clarkston, Georgia, on October 24, 2024.

The biggest super PAC supporting Kamala Harris for president, FF PAC, reported a massive $89 million fundraising haul in the first half of October, and disclosed a staggering total of nearly $139 million in spending in just the first sixteen days of the month.

The super PAC has taken on a singular role in the pro-Harris effort and is the largest outside advertiser in the presidential election. And FF PAC continued hauling in big donations during the first half of the month – the last comprehensive FEC reporting period before the election.

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz was the group’s largest named individual donor, giving $25 million in three installments during October. According to FF PAC’s filing, the tech billionaire has given the group a total of $38 million this year.

Other donors giving seven-figures included Martha Karsh, a nonprofit leader and the wife of billionaire investor Bruce Karsh; David Lippe, co-CEO of the major hedge fund Renaissance Technologies; and George Marcus, the billionaire real estate mogul.

While Moskovitz was the group’s largest named donor in the October reporting period, the group received the most money from the Democratic dark money group Future Forward USA Action, which contributed $40 million in the first half of the month and has provided the super PAC with over $128 million since the start of this year.

Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that Bill Gates, among the richest people in the world, was one of the dark money group’s large donors, “recently” giving “about $50 million.” As a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, Future Forward USA Action is not required to disclose its donors, meaning Gates’ reported contributions to the pro-Harris effort would not show up on public filings.

Elon Musk’s super PAC awarded two $1 million prizes to registered voters in Michigan and Wisconsin on Thursday, even after being warned by the Justice Department that the payments might be illegal.

These are the first giveaways by the pro-Trump super PAC after news broke Wednesday that the Justice Department sent a letter to the group, warning them that their “daily” sweepstakes might violate federal election laws against paying for voter registrations.

Musk launched the sweepstakes on Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania and his super PAC has named a winner each day – until Wednesday. No winner was announced on Wednesday, but two winners were announced on Thursday on X, the social media platform that Musk owns.

The group has not given any public explanation for the apparent one-day pause. A spokesperson for the super PAC declined to comment.

Former President Donald Trump called into Sen. JD Vance’s NewsNation town hall on Thursday and asked his running mate a couple of softball questions, including, “How brilliant is Donald J. Trump?”

Vance said Trump was “very brilliant” and shared a story he often narrates on the stump about how the former president asked Vance’s wife, Usha, who attended the town hall, what she thinks about her husband being in politics and public service.

“It was just a person talking to my wife, and I think you guys were able to have a nice conversation, but that ability to relate to anybody in any environment, I think that’s the true brilliance,” Vance added.

Trump said he watched the CNN town hall with Democratic rival Kamala Harris on Wednesday night and asked Vance, “How brilliant is Kamala?”

“Oh, that’s a very tough one, sir. I’m supposed to say …” Vance said.

“Don’t say it,” Trump cut in. “We don’t need any more. We’re doing just fine.”

Trump also offered some praise for his running mate: “JD is doing a fantastic job. Could not be happier. He’s really captivated people, and they love him.”

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance speaks during a NewsNation town hall event in Detroit, Michigan, on October 24, 2024.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said “maybe” he could have been better in the moment about pushing false claims about Haitian migrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio, but mainly stuck to his guns, arguing he was listening to his constituents.

“One of the things that I’ve learned in my time in the United States Senate is that sometimes the media doesn’t always listen to people, and sometimes people say something that seems outlandish and it turns out being false, and sometimes people say something outlandish that turns out being true,” Vance continued.

Vance recalled how constituents told him in East Palestine that the rivers were contaminated and initially thinking “that sounds kind of crazy.”

“I went up there, I stuck a stick in the mud, and I realized there’s a rainbow in the water. That’s not natural. What I took from that is, I’d rather listen to the people I represent than listen to bullies in the American media,” Vance said.

As CNN has reported, the claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets have been widely discredited.

Elon Musk speaks as part of a campaign town hall in support of Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump in Folsom, Pennsylvania, on October 17, 2024.

Elon Musk plowed another $43.6 million during October into the super PAC he helped form to reelect former President Donald Trump, new FEC filings on Thursday night show, bringing his total contributions to the group up to $118.6 million.

The group, America PAC, disclosed four installments of giving from Musk, the richest person in the world, throughout the first 16 days of October, the last comprehensive FEC reporting period before the election.

Musk gave $75 million to America PAC during the third quarter of the year, and his additional giving in October has enabled to group to continue spending tens of millions of dollars on canvassing and field operations in key battleground states, helping the Trump campaign keep pace with Kamala Harris’ record-breaking fundraising and its massive campaign spending.

The group reported a total of $46.6 million in receipts during the pre-general reporting period, including Musk’s $43.6 million and about $3 million from DeVos family members, including former Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the wife of former Amway CEO Dick DeVos.

Meanwhile, America PAC reported spending about $47 million between October 1 and October 16, directing about $45 million to independent expenditures, mostly supporting the Trump campaign, but also including a series of GOP House and Senate candidates. According to its report, America PAC has spent a total of $118 million on independent expenditures since it formed in May.

Some context: Musk has significantly ramped up his political giving in the 2024 election, and even hit the campaign trial to support former President Trump’s reelection bid. New filings Thursday also showed Musk giving $10 million to a leading GOP super PAC targeting Senate races, and $2.3 million to another GOP super PAC with the conservative Heritage Foundation.

Thursday night FEC filings showed two more ultra-wealthy donors cutting seven-figure checks to the pro-Trump effort in the first half of October.

Preserve America, one of the leading pro-Trump super PACs, raised just over $6 million in the final reporting period before Election Day, with $5 million coming from two industry-leading donors.

Elizabeth Uihlein – the wife of the Midwestern shipping and packaging billionaire Dick Uihlein, who himself gave $6.5 million to another pro-Trump super PAC, Restoration PAC, on October 7 – gave $3 million to Preserve America on October 15.

And Ronald Cameron, the owner and chairman of Mountaire Farms – one of the largest poultry producers in the United States – gave $2 million to the pro-Trump super PAC on October 10.

Preserve America is one of several pro-Trump outside groups that have poured tens of millions of dollars into the effort to return the former president to the White House. The super PAC reported spending more than $11 million between October 1 and October 16.

And in the third quarter of the year, the super PAC received $95 million from another conservative megadonor, Miriam Adelson, the wife of the late casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, both among the largest contributors to conservative candidates and causes over the last ten years.

Donald Trump ignored a question about a former Sports Illustrated model who told CNN on Thursday she was groped by the former president in the 1990s.

A CNN reporter asked Trump to respond to Stacey Williams’ allegations during a stop at a noisy Cuban restaurant in Las Vegas. Trump looked at the reporter, leaned in to better hear the question and was standing about one foot away.

When asked again, Trump pointed to his right ear and said, “Can’t hear.” He then walked away.

Some background: In her first on-camera interview about the allegation, Williams offered her most detailed public account of an alleged incident in which she said Trump groped her in the 1990s. She said she believes it was an attempt to show off for Jeffrey Epstein.

The Trump campaign denied Williams’ allegations, noting she shared her story on a Zoom call on Monday evening at a “Survivors for Kamala” event supporting Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential run against Trump, though the group is unaffiliated with the Harris campaign.

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday denied saying “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” and he bashed The Atlantic when asked about the reported comments.

At a Cuban restaurant in Las Vegas, CNN asked Trump about The Atlantic’s reporting and whether he had ever made those comments.

As he was leaving, Trump was asked if he had ever said “Hitler did some good things, too,” after John Kelly, Trump’s former White House chief of staff, told The New York Times he had made that comment more than once. He paused and turned back to say: “Never said it.”

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance on Thursday disagreed that tariffs will be a tax on American consumers and said that the ultimate result will be making the country more “self-reliant.”

He was speaking in Waterford, Michigan, when asked by a local reporter to explain why tariffs are not, in fact, paid at the expense of Americans.

As CNN has previously fact checked, a tariff is a tax that is paid by US businesses – not other countries – when a foreign-made good arrives at the American border. One of the intended goals of a tariff is to raise prices on foreign-made goods, and study after study show that the duties do drive up costs for Americans.

Vance argued tariffs increase the incentive for companies to make goods domestically, rather than in China “using literal slave labor,” which he says undercuts the wages of American workers.

“If you impose a fat tariff on people who are trying to import that stuff, then American factories and American corporations invest in American workers. That creates good jobs, it creates good products, and it makes us more self-reliant,” Vance said. “The same people that said that tariffs always lead to price increases are the same people who said that it would make our country richer if we let China and Mexico manufacture all of our stuff.”

Democratic presidential nominee US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a rally in Georgia, on October 24.

Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned with former President Barack Obama in Atlanta, Georgia, this evening as she makes her final case to voters with less than two weeks until Election Day. The event also saw a performance by Bruce Springsteen and filmmaker Tyler Perry.

Tomorrow, Beyoncé will appear alongside Harris for the first time on the campaign trail in Houston on Friday, a person familiar with the planning tells CNN.

Here’s what Harris and Obama said at the Atlanta event:

Meanwhile, here’s else what happened today:

Kamala Harris, left, is greeted by Liz Cheney, during a campaign event at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, on October 3.

Liz Cheney’s super PAC transferred $2.5 million to an outside group supporting Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign in October, new Federal Election Commission filings show, as the former Republican congresswoman stepped up her efforts to elect the Democratic vice president.

The reports show that the super PAC, “Our Great Task” – which Cheney helped form in March this year – transferred $2.5 million on October 8 to AB PAC, a leading Democratic super PAC engaged in the presidential race, which had itself reported spending more than $64 million through the end of September.

While the contribution from Cheney’s super PAC is relatively small in the context of a presidential race seeing hundreds of millions of dollars of campaign spending, it represents a material commitment to the pro-Harris effort that’s been reflected in Cheney’s on-the-ground efforts.

Over the last month, Cheney has appeared with Harris at several campaign events, and the former Wyoming representative has been urging Republicans and conservative independents to make the leap to Harris.

“I would just remind people, if you’re at all concerned, you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody,” Cheney said, as she sat side-by-side with Harris at a Detroit event earlier this week. “There will be millions of Republicans who do that on November 5.”

Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Thursday emphasized policy positions when asked about Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent focus on the existential threat that she says former President Donald Trump poses to the country.

Pressed by CNN if broad character arguments are the best way to win over Republican voters, Baldwin answered: “In my case, there’s a lot of other things that I’m talking about.”

Baldwin highlighted her own work to pass a bill to codify national abortion protections and to strengthen the Affordable Care Act, arguing her Republican opponent, Eric Hovde, wants to repeal the ACA “in its entirety.”

She also pointed to Hovde’s remark during last week’s Senate debate that he was “not an expert on the farm bill” when asked a policy question about the extensive agriculture legislation and pointed to how she was the first Democrat in nearly two decades to be endorsed by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau.

Meanwhile, Hovde accused Democrats of stoking division.

Speaking in a bar in Abbotsford, an area where Trump by a significant double-digit margin in 2020, Hovde blamed Democrats for the state of the country, saying, “look at the division that they’ve created.”

“Now we both play a bit of a role in that, but they’re experts at it. You watch what they say. I mean, they’re calling Trump Hitler again today, or something crazy thing like that,” he said.

Harris has not called Trump Hitler.

Former US President Barack Obama attends a rally for Democratic presidential nominee US Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia, on October 24.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama used their first joint campaign appearance at a star-studded rally including the iconic musician Bruce Springsteen and filmmaker Tyler Perry to mobilize voters in battleground Georgia.

Thursday’s event in the Peach State is the latest in a campaign sprint by Obama to gin up enthusiasm among voters in the closing days of the presidential election — and the first alongside Harris. Obama and Harris separately issued warnings about a potential second Trump term and sought to cast Trump as consumed by his own troubles.

Harris built on those comments, saying: “There is an overwhelming call for a fresh start, for a new generation of leadership that is optimistic and excited about what we can do together. There is a yearning for a president of the United States who will see you, who gets you, and who will fight for you.”

Harris cited her proposals on health care and the economy, underscoring the need to lower costs and her small business plans, and calling abortion bans “immoral.”

Harris and Obama also invoked comments from Trump’s former senior officials who have raised alarm about him returning to the Oval Office.

“We do not need four years of a wannabe king, a wannabe dictator running around trying to punish his enemies. That’s not what you need in your life. America is ready to turn the page,” Obama said.

Read more details here about the rally

Introduced to Georgians by former President Barack Obama, Kamala Harris said his 2008 presidential campaign “energized and inspired” millions of Americans.

They were inspired not only by his message “but by how he leads, seeking to unite rather than separate us,” she said.

That’s why, Harris said, she went door knocking in Iowa for his candidacy.

“Your friendship and your faith in me — and in our campaign — means the world. Thank you, Mr. President,” Harris told Obama.

Former President Barack Obama gestures to Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris after introducing her to speak during a campaign rally in Clarkston, Georgia on October 24.

Former President Barack Obama gave another forceful pitch to voters to elect Vice President Kamala Harris during a rally in Georgia, a critical battleground state, on Thursday.

it was his first campaign appearance alongside the Democratic standard-bearer and he introduced Harris at the conclusion of his remarks.

Obama has been campaigning for Harris in recent weeks, telling voters about how the vice president would work for Americans and attacking former President Donald Trump.

In a speech similar to his past campaign appearances, Obama touted Harris’ upbringing in a middle class family and argued that she better understands the struggles Americans are facing because she went through them herself.

He was referencing Trump’s stop at one of the fast-food chain’s Pennsylvania franchises over the weekend, where he worked as a fry attendant. He handed customers food through the drive-thru window. The restaurant was closed for the event.

Obama said that Harris has spent her career “fighting on behalf of people who need a voice” and pointed to several of Harris’ proposals as examples of how she would do that as president.

“She will not be focused on her problems, her ego, her money. She’s going to be focused on you,” Obama said.

New filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Thursday night showed wealthy donors continuing to give millions to the pro-Trump effort as the presidential campaign turned to October.

A new filing from the largest pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc., showed the group hauling in $9.8 million during the first 16 days of the month — the last FEC reporting period prior to Election Day — and several notable names among its leading donors.

Here’s some of the names in MAGA Inc.’s filing:

Meanwhile, another major pro-Trump super PAC, Restoration PAC, reported receiving $6.5 million from its largest donor, the Midwestern shipping and packaging billionaire Dick Uihlein, on October 7.

Both groups have taken on leading roles in the pro-Trump effort, spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising campaigns blitzing key battleground states, while Restoration PAC has also targeted a few congressional races, including the Senate race in Uihlein’s home state of Wisconsin.

According to the groups’ latest filings, they combined to spend nearly $68 million total in just the 16 day pre-general reporting period, emptying their war chests as the 2024 campaign entered the final sprint.

Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at Mullett Arena, in Tempe, Arizona, on October 24.

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday responded to Vice President Kamala Harris’ comments at CNN’s town hall calling him a fascist.

Harris in a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania on Wednesday was asked by CNN’s Anderson Cooper if she thought Trump was a fascist and she said, “Yes, I do.”

In the Thursday interview, Trump also responded to comments made by his former White House chief of staff John Kelly and said he last spoke to Kelly “years ago.”

“I fired him. He was a bully, he was a bad guy, and he ended up being a weak guy because all bullies end up being weak,” Trump said.

“He made a statement that I’m like Hitler, it just couldn’t be further from the truth, it’s just the opposite actually,” Trump said.

Kelly didn’t say Trump was “like Hitler” — Kelly told the New York Times that Trump had more than once said, “Hitler did some good things, too.” He also told the Times that Trump “certainly prefers the dictator approach to government.” Kelly also told The Atlantic that Trump had said he wished his military personnel showed him the same deference Adolf Hitler’s Nazi generals showed the German dictator during World War II.

Trump said of Harris’ performance in the CNN town hall, “I’ve never seen anybody so inept at speaking.”

“I thought her performance was horrible,” Trump said.

President Joe Biden recorded several direct-to-camera videos urging grassroots supporters to donate to Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, a Biden adviser told CNN, part of a fundraising push in the final stretch before the election.

Biden has recorded fundraising videos urging donors to support the Harris-Walz campaign, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the adviser says. He’s also recorded a similar video and a robocall for the Senate campaign of Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, a close ally in his home state of Delaware.

Biden’s name will also be signed on fundraising e-mails and SMS text messages for the Harris-Walz campaign, DCCC, DLCC, Democratic Governors Association, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Blunt Rochester’s campaign in the coming week.

The fundraising push comes as the president’s campaign engagements have been limited in the months since he dropped out of the 2024 race. After speaking at the Democratic National Convention in August, he campaigned with Harris once on Labor Day in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has participated in only a few other political engagements, including upcoming plans to speak to union workers in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Biden has also put in some calls behind the scenes to leaders in the labor community to urge them to encourage their rank-and-file members to vote for Harris and Democrats in down ballot races, the adviser said. He delivered virtual remarks to the leadership teams for the North American Building Trades Unions in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin this week.