October 8, 2024, presidential campaign news

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Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio speaks at a campaign event at Eastern Market in Detroit on October 8.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said Tuesday that he would support the 2024 election result and added that he believes that it will result in a Trump victory, while continuing to dodge on questions surrounding the 2020 election.

“We’re going to support the 2024 result. And I think that result is going to be Donald Trump wins not just Michigan but the whole presidency,” Vance said in a pull aside interview with WXYZ.

“Nobody disputes that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the president and vice president,” Vance said. “What President Trump and I have said is just that there — there are some issues that are worth debating that happened in 2020.”

Vance repeated that 2020 is in “the past,” when asked about voters who are disappointed by his stance on certifying the election results. Vance has said that he would have asked the states to submit alternative slate of electors if he were in Mike Pence’s shoes.

As one example, Vance said big tech companies were trying to censor Americans in 2020.

Trump has regularly referred to the 2020 election as stolen and rigged. Asked about his 2021 “childless cat ladies” comment, Vance said he made a “dumb comment years ago.”

“I’d ask people, don’t take a comment, a boneheaded comment, I made four years ago in sarcasm and focus on that. Focus on the pro-family agenda that Donald Trump and I have,” he said.

Tim Walz speaks during a debate in New York on October 1.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sharply attacked former President Donald Trump after reporting shed light on his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, labeling Trump “a risk to our national security” during a rally in Reno, Nevada, on Tuesday.

The Democratic vice presidential nominee referenced new reporting by journalist Bob Woodward that says Trump and Putin have had “maybe as many as seven calls” since Trump left the White House in 2021, attacking Trump for having frequent calls with a “dictator.” The former president denied the reporting in an interview with Newsmax on Tuesday.

The governor also reiterated a line he’d used at fundraisers earlier on Tuesday while attacking Trump for reportedly discretely sending Covid-19 testing supplies to Putin during the pandemic, and recalled his own efforts to manage Minnesota’s response to the pandemic as a point of comparison.

Trump told ABC News earlier Tuesday that report is “false.”

Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers faced off in the first of two Senate debates in Michigan on Tuesday evening.

“The good news is we both have records,” Slotkin, who was first elected in 2018, remarked in her opening statement as she prepared to face Rogers, who served in US Congress for 14 years, after being a state senator for 6 years.

Throughout the debate, Slotkin and Rogers leaned on their own backgrounds and targeted one another for their legislative and professional records.

Focus on abortion: Though Michigan voted in 2022 to codify abortion rights in the state’s constitution, the issue has still shaped races across the state, as Democrats warn that electing Republicans could still lead to a national abortion ban.

Rogers, who has faced repeated attacks by Slotkin for his voting record on the issue, called the choice to have an abortion the “most heart wrenching a decision a woman will ever have to make” and vowed to do “nothing” to change what voters decided when “the people of Michigan voted overwhelmingly to make abortion legal and a part of the state constitution of Michigan.”

Slotkin brought up Rogers’ record, noting he voted for legislation restricting reproductive rights 56 times while he was a lawmaker.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday cracked open a can of beer with Stephen Colbert during her appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”

“When you first became the nominee and named Tim Walz as your vice president nominee, people were calling it the vibe election,” Colbert said to Harris.

“Elections I think are won on vibes because one of the old saws is they just want somebody they can have a beer with. So would, would you like to have a beer with me so I can tell people what that’s like?” Colbert asked.

Colbert noted he asked ahead of time if he could have a drink with Harris “because I can’t just be giving a drink to the vice president United States without asking.”

Per the vice president’s request, they sipped a Miller High Life together, which is brewed in the battleground state of Wisconsin.

“The last time I had beer was at a baseball game with Doug. OK, cheers,” Harris said.

“That tastes like the beautiful city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin,” Colbert said.

“The champagne of beers,” she responded.

Donald Trump listens to a question from the audience during a town hall-style campaign event at the Crown Center Arena in Fayetteville, North Carolina, October 4.

Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, who are in the country legally with Temporary Protected Status are “illegal immigrants as far as I’m concerned.”

The comments come after Trump said he would revoke the Temporary Protected Status for the Haitian migrants in the Ohio city. Trump and his allies have amplified false claims about Haitian migrants in Springfield alleging that they are eating people’s pets — rumors decried by state and local officials as untrue and destructive to the community.

“I mean, look at Springfield, where 30,000 illegal immigrants are dropped, and it was, they may have done it through a certain little trick, but they are illegal immigrants as far as I’m concerned. They’re destroying the town, they’re destroying the whole — they’ll end up destroying the state. We cannot let this happen,” Trump said in an interview with Newsmax.

Some context: Many Haitians came into the country under a Biden-Harris administration parole program that gives permission to enter to vetted participants with US sponsors. Many have “Temporary Protected Status,” as CNN has previously reported, which shields them from deportation and allows them to live and work in the country for a limited period of time.

The city of Springfield notes on its website that approximately 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants live in Clark County — which has a population of roughly 136,000 — and that Haitian immigrants are there legally.

Haitian workers play a significant role in Springfield’s economy, filling much-needed jobs, the city has said. Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has acknowledged the city was having some issues adjusting to the influx of mostly Haitian immigrants, but he said in an interview last month they were working on with the issues and called the Haitian immigrants “positive influences” on the community.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff speaks during a campaign event in Mesa, Arizona, on Tuesday, October 8.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff campaigned in battleground Arizona on Tuesday for his wife, Vice President Kamala Harris, thanking Republicans who have chosen to back the Democratic presidential ticket for “putting country over party.”

“Thank you all, Mayor [John Giles] and the other Republicans here for putting country over party. This is the most important election of our lifetimes, but it’s also the most important election of our nation’s lifetime,” he said at a “Republicans for Harris volunteer appreciation event” in Mesa.

He also thanked the Church of Latter-day Saints members, a key voting bloc in Arizona, for “recognizing the values at stake.”

Mesa Mayor John Giles, a self-declared lifelong Republican who has said the Biden-Harris administration delivered results for his conservative community, leads Arizona Republicans for Harris. The church member, who also spoke at the Democratic National Convention, told the room of supporters that this “election is going to be decided by who does the better job of getting out the vote.”

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance accused the Biden-Harris administration of mismanaging the response to Hurricane Helene in a Tuesday op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, claiming “a bureaucratic bottleneck was delaying the deployment of active-duty military personnel to the western mountains of North Carolina.”

Vance said, “As evening fell on Friday, Oct. 4, fewer than half of the 1,000 troops were conducting operations and deployed to Western North Carolina.” He said that statements from North Carolina Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis “seemed to have an effect” on the national response, given that on Sunday, the Pentagon authorized an additional 500 troops.

President Joe Biden issued a statement Sunday that outlined how his administration is “sparing no resource” to support families as they begin rebuilding and announced an additional 500 active-duty troops to assist.

Arguing that Hurricane Helene’s response “has been the victim of misplaced Biden-Harris political priorities,” Vance said, “FEMA has funneled millions of dollars to nongovernmental organizations whose stated goal is facilitating mass migration into the U.S.”

“The effort stems from a White House directive to reorient FEMA’s institutional focus away from U.S. citizens and toward aliens who either have no legal right to be here or whose legal status depends on the say-so of the Biden-Harris administration,” Vance said.

Some background: Vance’s comments come as former President Donald Trump has claimed that the Biden administration has spent FEMA money on housing undocumented immigrants. As CNN’s Daniel Dale reported, Congress appropriated $650 million in the 2024 fiscal year to fund a program that helps state and local governments house migrants — and instructed US Customs and Border Protection to transfer that $650 million to FEMA to administer the program. But this $650 million pot is entirely distinct from FEMA’s pot of disaster relief funds.

Ethel Kennedy attends a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston on September 20, 2016.

Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy and mother of former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is receiving hospital treatment after suffering a stroke last week, her grandson said Tuesday.

“I wanted to let you know about my incredible grandmother, Ethel Kennedy. She has had a great summer and transition into fall. Every day she enjoyed time with her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She was able to get out on the water, visit the pier, and enjoy many lunches and dinners with family. It has been a gift to all of us and to her as well. Unfortunately, on Thursday morning she suffered a stroke in her sleep,” Joe Kennedy III said in a post on X.

“She was brought to an area hospital, where she is now receiving treatment. She is comfortable, she is getting the best care possible, and she is surrounded by family,” the former congressman continued.

Ethel shared 11 children with Robert F. Kennedy, who she married in 1950. The former New York senator and US attorney general was assassinated in 1968 while a presidential candidate.

An environmental and human rights activist, Kennedy, 96, helped found the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, which supports the causes championed by Robert F. Kennedy. In 2014, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

Kennedy’s grandson on Tuesday asked for thoughts, prayers and his family’s privacy.

President Joe Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Tuesday, October 8, to attend a campaign event for Sen. Bob Casey.

President Joe Biden blasted former President Donald Trump following new reporting that Trump secretly shipped Russian President Vladimir Putin Covid-19 testing equipment for his personal use during the height of the pandemic, according to reporters in the room during Biden’s remarks at a Philadelphia fundraiser Tuesday.

“He called his good friend Putin, not a joke, and made sure he had the tests. He had the tests. What the hell’s wrong with this guy?” Biden said.

Earlier Tuesday, CNN reported on excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, “War,” which details the close ties between Trump and Putin, including the revelation that there have been “maybe as many as seven” calls between the two leaders since Trump left the White House in 2021.

Pennsylvania Senate race: Biden was speaking at a fundraiser for Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who faces Republican Dave McCormick in November. According to pool reporters in the room, Biden said McCormick “is in lockstep with Donald Trump, voted by historians as the most dishonorable president in American history.”

In his remarks Tuesday, the president painted the race for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat as a battle of “Scranton values versus Mar-a-Lago values,” a line he used repeatedly when still running for reelection.

And he called Casey, whose family he said he knew growing up in Scranton, “a man of character” who “keeps his word.”

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday said it was asking North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and the state legislature to expand voter access for those affected by the devastation of Hurricane Helene.

Trump co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita outlined 10 actions they believed would “ensure the people who have already suffered from the storm don’t lose their right to participate in this important election.”

The campaign is asking North Carolina leaders to:

Some background: North Carolina’s election board unanimously passed a resolution Monday to grant the counties most affected by Hurricane Helene the ability to add or remove early voting sites and to adjust the schedules for those sites. It also permits displaced voters to drop off absentee ballots at other county boards of election where they have relocated.

In a move that critics are calling a flagrant abuse of power, Florida’s Department of Health is threatening to bring criminal charges against local TV stations airing a campaign ad to overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The unusual warning from the Republican-controlled state agency prompted the Democratic chair of the Federal Communications Commission to step in on Tuesday.

Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC chair, said that stations should not be intimidated for airing political ads.

“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”

The FCC’s show of support for the stations is noteworthy given the federal agency controls broadcast station licenses across the country.

The Florida Department of Health, however, cited local statutes in the cease-and-desist letters sent last week to WCJB in Gainesville and WFLA in Tampa.

The threat from the health department underscores the intensity of the political battle over Amendment 4, a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in Florida’s constitution. The state government led by DeSantis has campaigned aggressively against the amendment, including by running its own TV ads.

The health department did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment about the FCC rebuke. The local stations did not respond to requests for comment, but both stations continued to air the ads on Tuesday.

Read more about battle over the abortion rights ad in Florida here.

Former President Donald Trump said he was campaigning in Democratic stronghold California this weekend because “I felt I owed it to them.”

Asked Tuesday on “The John Kobylt Show” why he “would waste any time and money” campaigning in the Golden State, Trump responded: “We have a lot of support in California and I felt I owed it to them” before praising the location where he’ll hold the rally.

The rally is scheduled to take place Saturday at Calhoun Ranch in Coachella, California. “And he really wanted to do it, he’s a great gentleman,” Trump said of the landowner.

Trump said earlier in the interview that he thought he would “win it in a landslide” if there was an “honest election” in California, despite Democrats carrying the state in the last seven presidential elections.

Some background: Trump has falsely claimed for years that US vote counts are plagued by major fraud. In the last month, he has declared he would win Democratic-dominated California if there was an “honest” vote count. The votes are counted honestly in California, and Trump lost the state in 2020 by more 5 million votes and more than 29 percentage points.

War is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history.

In his new book, legendary journalist Bob Woodward offers a remarkable look behind the scenes at President Joe Biden’s blunt, profanity-laced assessments and interactions with the world leaders who have shaped his presidency. The book also reveals new details about Donald Trump’s private conversations with Vladimir Putin — and a secret shipment of Covid-19 testing equipment Trump sent to the Russian president for his personal use.

The book, “War,” was obtained by CNN before its October 15 publication.

Among the new details in the book:

In a statement, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said the former president gave Woodward “absolutely no access” for the book. “None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true,” he said.

Asked about the details that Woodward reports about Biden and Netanyahu, White House senior deputy press secretary Emilie Simons told reporters Tuesday, “They have a long-term relationship. They have a very honest and direct relationship, and I don’t have a comment on those specific anecdotes.”

Read the full report.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called for the abolishment of the Electoral College during a campaign fundraiser in California on Tuesday, according to reporters traveling with the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

Walz told supporters gathered at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s private residence in Sacramento that he believes “the Electoral College needs to go” and called for presidential elections to be determined by the winner of the national popular vote.

Walz’s call for eliminating the Electoral College is not an official campaign position, a Harris campaign official told CNN.

“Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket. He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement.

Vice President Kamala Harris has previously expressed openness to eliminating the Electoral College. During a 2019 interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Harris, who was running for president at the time, said she was “open to the discussion” of abolishing the Electoral College.

Walz reacts to Woodward book: Walz also reacted to new reporting from Bob Woodward that former President Donald Trump provided Russian President Vladimir Putin with a secret shipment of Covid-19 testing equipment in 2020, telling the Sacramento audience the news “boils my blood.”

“This latest revelation, I think as a governor, boils my blood. While Donald Trump threw us into hunger games, pitting one against the other … now we find out Donald Trump’s giving Vladimir Putin things that we couldn’t even get for our own people,” Walz said.

This post has been updated with comment from the Harris campaign.

Sen. Mitt Romney participates in an event at University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics on Tuesday, October 8.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, a strong critic of former President Donald Trump, walked right up to the line of committing to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris during an event on Tuesday. However, he said he would not go any further because he worries it would hurt his position in a future, non-Trumpian Republican Party.

“My own view is that I want to continue to have a voice in the Republican Party, following this election — because I think there is a good shot that the Republican Party is going to have to be rebuilt or reoriented, either after this election, or, if Donald Trump is reelected, after he’s the president — and believe I will have more influence in the party by virtue of saying it as I’ve said it.”

The Utah senator, who is not running for reelection, added that since he voted to convict Trump in both of the former president’s impeachment trials, “I think where I stand on Donald Trump is pretty clear.”

Romney noted he believes that Trump will win the White House, in part due to Democrats playing to their base on social issues.

“I think the reason the Democratic Party is in trouble this year — in my opinion, will likely lose the presidential race … is not because of their policy, but it’s because of the positions they’ve taken on cultural issues,” he said.

Sen. JD Vance speaks at a campaign event at Eastern Market Tuesday, October 8, in Detroit.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said he believes China is the biggest threat to the United States, after Harris identified Iran as the greatest adversary of the United States in an interview with 60 Minutes.

“I think, man, it revealed that Kamala Harris seems to be totally fine with starting or escalating a conflict in every continent, all over the world. Donald Trump believes peace through strength. Stop the killing, get Americans out of harm’s way, and focus on building a peaceful globe. That is how you help Palestinians. That’s how you help Israelis. But most importantly, it’s how you help American citizens, is peace,” Vance said.

Vance said his pitch to Arab American voters on why they should vote for Donald Trump is that he will bring “peace” to the Middle East region.

“Arab Americans often have different views than Jewish Americans on what’s going on in Israel, what’s going on in Palestine. But I think both Jewish Americans and Arab Americans recognize that what’s in the best interest of Israel and Palestine is peace. And Donald J. Trump was the president of peace,” Vance said.

The reporter who asked the question about Arab Americans mentioned how Trump falsely said that he had visited Gaza, but Vance did not address that.

Vance also said that the Trump campaign is “thrilled” to have the support of Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, who the Detroit News notes is the first Arab American and first Muslim to lead the city, which has a large Muslim population.

“I’m not meeting any Arab American or Muslim American leaders on this particular trip, though, we certainly will in future trips to Michigan,” Vance said.

A question written on an orange was rolled to Sen. JD Vance on his campaign plane on Tuesday, Octoaber 8.

A traveling press tradition played out on Sen. JD Vance’s campaign plane this afternoon, as the network reporters covering the campaign and one print reporter rolled an orange with a question to the front of the plane where Vance was seated.

While CNN’s attempt to send the orange forward slightly dented the fruit, ABC effectively bowled the orange up toward Vance’s seat.

Within minutes, Vance returned the orange with an answer to his favorite song: “Ten Years Gone” by Led Zeppelin.

Yesterday, the reporters covering Walz asked the vice presidential nominee who his dream dinner guest is on their own orange and he replied Bruce Springsteen.

During the first week of October, Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign put more money behind ads about health care while Donald Trump ramped up criticism of the vice president’s positions on LGBTQ issues, and outside groups continued launching stark attack ads, advertising data shows.

The ad tracking firm AdImpact catalogs the issues that are referenced in broadcast TV campaign ads and tracks the amount of money behind those spots. Comparing changes month-to-month and even week-to-week can show how each campaign is tailoring its message, and it shows the share of campaign resources spent highlighting various issues.

Harris campaign

Between August and September, the Harris campaign moved away from defensive ads that stressed the vice president’s law enforcement background, toward more ads touting on her economic proposals and also focused on abortion rights – a key issue for many Democratic and independent voters since Roe v. Wade was overturned and severe restrictions on the procedure were enacted in mostly Republican-led states.

Now, in the first full week of the final full month of campaign, ad data shows how health care and abortion rights are becoming a more dominant share of Harris campaign messaging.

Out of a total of $16.1 million that the Harris campaign spent on broadcast TV ads during the first week of October (10/1 - 10/7), about $7.2 million (44%) went to ads that referenced health care, the top ranked issue in Harris advertising, up from 17% in September.

Trump campaign

On the other side, in the first week of October, the Trump campaign continued to emphasize economic issues, but also ramped up its criticism of Harris’ positions on LGBTQ issues – in particular, replaying clips of Harris during her 2020 presidential campaign expressing support for taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.

“It sounds insane because it is insane,” says an ad that the Trump campaign has spent more than $6 million airing over the last week. “Kamala was the first to help pay for a prisoner’s sex change.”

That attack has been echoed in several other ads from the Trump campaign, and it’s driven LGBTQ rights to the second most-referenced issue in ads from the campaign during the first week of the month – more than half of its total broadcast TV spend in that period going to ads about the issue, up from 17% in September and 0% in August.

Overall, the top issue in Trump campaign ads during the first week of October was taxation, referenced in three-quarters of its broadcast TV advertising, as the campaign repeatedly warned that Harris would “significantly” raise taxes – a claim that has drawn the ire of fact checkers, including CNN’s Daniel Dale.

Georgia's State Election Board members discuss proposals for election rule changes at the state capitol on September 20 in Atlanta.

The Donald Trump-allied Georgia State Election Board is pushing to install people who deny the result of the 2020 presidential election as part of a monitoring team in Fulton County, the biggest Democratic-leaning county in the state and one that was consequential for Joe Biden’s victory four years ago.

The board has no legal authority to install its own recommended monitors, but that did not stop the GOP majority from voting on Tuesday to repeat its effort to include its own suggested monitoring team in Fulton County. The move, coming less than 30 days before Election Day, is the latest example of what critics say is the board acting in a way that may create chaos next month.

Asked by CNN whether this was an effort to get partisan election deniers to be part of the monitoring teams, board member Dr. Janice Johnston said, “absolutely not” while also conceding the decision on who monitors election precincts is ultimately up to the county.

Fulton County, meanwhile, has sued the board, objecting to the push to force it to use election deniers as monitors.

Fulton County has already agreed to a monitoring team proposal that would include Ryan Germany, a former staff attorney for the Georgia secretary of state during the 2020 election, as well as members of The Carter Center, former President Jimmy Carter’s non-profit organization which has been internationally acclaimed for its election monitoring.

But GOP members of the state-election board told CNN neither Germany nor the Carter Center should be allowed to be a monitor because of bias.

The Carter Center has a world-renowned reputation of election observation, Johnston said, but that’s “in the past.”