September 7, 2024, presidential campaign news

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner in Washington, DC, on Saturday evening.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Saturday attacked Ohio Sen. JD Vance for reacting to the Georgia school shooting this week by expressing regret that school shootings are a “fact of life.”

At a Washington, DC, event focused on LGBTQ rights, Walz chastised Republicans who seek to restrict books with LGBTQ themes out of fear they will “turn your children gay.” In criticizing the book bans implemented in some states, Walz referenced Vance’s comments to highlight Republicans’ policy priorities. 

“This is what these folks are focusing on, spending all their time, like reading about two male penguins who love each other is — is somehow going to turn your children gay, and that’s what you should worry about,” Walz said during his address at the Human Rights Campaign’s national dinner in Washington, DC.

Walz went out to tout his and Vice President Kamala Harris’ record of defending LGBTQ rights while frequently attacking Vance and former President Donald Trump for positions that Walz argued infringe on those rights.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee also attacked Vance over his and Trump’s positions on protecting access to reproductive health care. 

Former President Donald Trump touched on familiar talking points as he spoke during a campaign rally at an airfield in central Wisconsin on Saturday, projecting confidence about Tuesday’s debate against Vice President Kamala Harris while shouting out allies Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Here’s some of what Trump said during the rally:

On the debate: Trump said the country is run by “stupid people” and that we “found that out at the debate with Joe (Biden).”

“We’re going to find it out again on Tuesday night. Is anybody going to be watching?” Trump asked the crowd. The former president predicted that pundits would say he lost the debate, even “if I destroy her.”

Praising RFK Jr.: Trump repeatedly praised Kennedy, saying that with his help, “we’ll take on the corruption at the FDA, the CDC, World Health Organization and other institutions of public health.”

Kennedy, the former independent presidential candidate who has embraced conspiracy theories about vaccines and other issues, has been positioned by the former president to helm a panel investigating chronic health problems in a potential second Trump administration.

On Boeing and SpaceX: Trump said the Boeing Starliner crew being stuck in space is “embarrassing,” and that Musk, the SpaceX CEO, is “going to have to save them.”

Trump continued his public praise of the tech billionaire amid the tightening alliance between the two men. 

“He’s very good at what he does,” Trump said of Musk. “Leon’s going to send up a rocket, he looks forward to it,” he added, apparently misstating his ally’s first name.

The praise of Musk comes days after Trump announced he would appoint Musk to head a newly created government efficiency commission if reelected.

The ballot in Colorado: Trump said people in Colorado should “do a major protest vote” in favor of him because of the failed efforts to remove him from the ballot, which had cited the 14th Amendment’s insurrectionist clause in relation to the January 6 Capitol riot.

Behind bullet-resistant glass, former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Mosinee, Wisconsin, on Saturday.

Former President Donald Trump on Saturday called for modifying the 25th Amendment of the US Constitution and said if a vice president covers for the “incapacity of the president” they should be removed from office.

Since President Joe Biden suspended his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump and his Republican allies have accused Vice President Kamala Harris and others at the White House of engaging in a cover-up to hide the state of the president’s mental fitness.

“You know, think of it — if he didn’t go to that debate, he’d still be running,” Trump added, referencing Biden’s poor debate performance in June.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is marking the five-year anniversary of a series of social media posts in which former President Donald Trump said he’d invited Taliban leaders to Camp David to meet with him and the president of Afghanistan, arguing that Trump’s “chaotic actions” led to the “catastrophic consequences” in Afghanistan.

In a statement on Saturday, Harris campaign national security spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein cited Trump’s handling of Afghanistan as an example of foreign policy that “put our troops in harm’s way.”

The statement comes as Trump and his allies have repeatedly sought to link Harris to the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

Remember: In September 2019, Trump said Taliban leaders were set to travel to the US for secret peace talks but that the meeting was canceled and he called off peace talks with the militant group entirely. Trump posted on Twitter, now X, that he scrapped the meeting after the Taliban took credit for an attack in Kabul that killed a dozen people, including an American soldier.

More context: Trump promised to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan during his presidency. His administration set the final withdrawal in motion by negotiating and signing a deal with the Taliban in 2020 that stipulated the drawdown of US service members in Afghanistan.

After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, he fired his defense secretary at the time, Mark Esper, purged many top officials at the Pentagon and tried to further accelerate US drawdowns, both in Afghanistan and in Europe.

Biden reversed the drawdown of service members in Europe but delayed by only a few months Trump’s plans to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, despite worsening conditions on the ground and rapid gains by the Taliban.

Retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, who served as national security adviser under Trump, said last month that his onetime boss bears some responsibility for what was ultimately a chaotic withdrawal.

CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf contributed reporting to this post.

Vice President Kamala Harris answers questions from reporters during a campaign stop at Penzey's Spices in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Vice President Kamala Harris welcomed the endorsement of former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Rep. Liz Cheney, calling the prominent Republicans’ backing a rebuke of the “attempts to kind of divide us as Americans.”

“I’m honored to have their endorsement,” she told reporters during a visit to a spice shop in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

“They both as leaders who are well-respected are making an important statement that it’s OK and if not important to put country above party,” she added.

Harris says she’s ready for debate: Harris visited Penzeys Spices in Pittsburgh as a brief respite from debate preparations, where she greeted supporters and perused merchandise. Harris told reporters the “best part” of debate preparations was getting a chance to visit the store.

Harris suggested her main focus in next week’s debate with former President Donald Trump is to communicate with voters that it’s “time to turn the page on divisiveness.”

When asked if she’s ready to debate Trump, she replied, “Yes I am. Yes.”

Harris greets people during a campaign stop at Penzey's Spices in Pittsburgh.

During her visit to the store, Harris greeted roughly a dozen customers and took a tour, guided by one of the shop’s employees. One woman was particularly overwhelmed upon meeting the vice president when she arrived at the store.

“It’s gonna be good,” Harris replied. “We are all in this together.”

Former President Donald Trump addresses the Economic Club of New York on September 5.

Former President Donald Trump was asked how he would bring down the cost of child care — which is a barrier to people having children and a major drain on parents — at a talk with the Economic Club of New York on Thursday.

His response could accurately be described as a ramble without an answer, and it’s worth looking closer at an issue that affects so many Americans.

Trump got off to a good start, referencing a provision in his tax cut law that doubled the child tax credit to $2,000 per child for millions of Americans, according to a CNN fact check. Trump’s doubling of the credit is set to expire next year, so this will be a key issue for whoever wins the White House.

Then things stopped making much sense. He dismissed the issue as ultimately not a very big problem, and not that expensive to fix compared with the money he will raise with his plan to place taxes, also known as tariffs, on all imports coming into the US:

“We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it is relatively speaking not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in,” Trump said.

Hear that, parents? The cost of child care is small change compared with all the money the US is going to be bringing in from Trump’s tariffs.

CNN’s Tami Luhby looked at the broad strokes of this claim and found it is not at all clear how that would work. Some economists fear higher tariffs could raise prices, hurt the economy and set off an international trade war.

And what you didn’t hear from Trump is a concrete proposal for a tax credit or a program to transform those tariff dollars into help for affording child care.

Read a breakdown of Trump’s response line-by-line.

The race to Election Day in November is on.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have picked their running mates and held nominating conventions to rally their parties. They have limited time to convince the few undecided voters and make sure everyone in key battleground states gets to the polls. And they’re now gearing up to meet on the debate stage in just three days.

We don’t know specifically what will happen between now and Election Day, or what could come after, when the country’s unique Electoral College process gets going. But we do have some idea of what to expect:

The Democratic National Committee is flying planes over college football games in Midwestern battleground states featuring banners linking former President Donald Trump and his running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance to the conservative policy platform Project 2025.

The DNC banners flew over home football games at the University of Michigan and Pennsylvania State University, and are planning to fly an additional advertisement over University of Wisconsin’s stadium later today.

The banners are the latest effort by Democrats to tie Trump to the controversial platform.

Over the University of Wisconsin stadium later today, the DNC will fly a banner that references an in-stadium tradition, reading “Jump Around! Beat Trump + Project 2025.”

Trump has previously enjoyed warm welcomes at red state college games.

More background on Project 2025: The former president has said he has “no idea” who is behind the 900-page playbook for a potential second Trump term published by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. But a CNN review found at least 140 people who worked in the Trump administration had a hand in Project 2025, including six of his former Cabinet secretaries, four individuals who were nominated as ambassadors, and his first deputy chief of staff.

Larissa Miller, right, and her partner worship during a service at Watershed.

Over the last few decades, a growing number of Christians have left traditional, predominantly White evangelical churches. Some have left Christianity altogether, while others have joined communities that preach inclusivity, are affirming of LGBTQ rights, and take a social justice approach to the major moral issues of the times — from racial equality to the plight of refugees.

The post-evangelical movement predates former President Donald Trump’s political rise, but has been accelerated by his alliance with White conservative evangelical leaders. It’s also part of a broader community of Christians who’ve been turned off by mainstream evangelicalism’s embrace of Republican politics — a group Democrats are hoping to make inroads with in November in battleground states.

The evangelical label covers a broad swath of Christian denominations and people of all races. But politically, the predominant image of an evangelical Christian has become a White conservative who votes Republican; opposes same-sex marriage and abortion; and, in the last eight years, supports Trump.

Trump critics have said his personal conduct — such as his divorces, his alleged affair with an adult film star and a verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse — are in sharp contrast with the evangelical emphasis on traditional family structures.

Still, Trump has maintained overwhelming support among White evangelicals since consolidating their support during the 2016 Republican primary.

But liberals are also seeking to gain ground with White evangelical voters. The group Evangelicals for Harris has launched a digital ad campaign to explicitly boost turnout for the vice president. The campaign also plans to organize at hundreds of churches.

Read more about the acceleration of the post-evangelical movement