September 27, 2024, presidential campaign news

Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, leaves a meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, in 2022.

Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist and wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, was among the prominent political figures that Iranian hackers sought to impersonate as part of their efforts to target people associated with former President Donald Trump, according to court documents and law enforcement officials briefed on the matter.

US federal prosecutors on Friday unsealed criminal charges against three Iranian government-linked hackers in connection with a hacking operation aimed at Trump.

The indictment doesn’t identify Ginni Thomas by name, but it states that between April and May 2024, the hackers used the persona set up in the name of the justice’s spouse to send spearphishing emails to a former homeland security adviser and to a former US president, among other targets.

The hackers had set up a fake email account in Ginni Thomas’ name in April 2020, according to the indictment and law enforcement officials, but it wasn’t until four years later that they used that account in their efforts.

More context: Between June and August 2024, the hackers used access to a Trump campaign official’s personal email account to steal “debate preparation” material and information on potential vice presidential candidates, according to the indictment. The leak of some of that material to US media outlets was part of an Iranian effort to stoke discord during the election, the Justice Department alleged.

Read more here.

Former President Donald Trump went after Vice President Kamala Harris for her Friday visit to the southern border as both candidates continue to emphasize their border security plans on the campaign trail.

He accused Harris of visiting the border to “make up some lies, like she said about the border bill that Trump stopped.”

Harris has vowed to help bring back the legislation, if elected. But Trump said “she doesn’t need a bill,” implying that the vice president could encourage President Joe Biden to take more executive actions on border security.

Trump also directly blamed Harris for the border crisis and influx of migrants, whom he described as “murders” and “drug dealers.”

Trump again accused Democrats of letting people enter the country illegally because “they want the votes,” even though noncitizens can’t vote in the US.

More context: Congress this week passed a short-term bill to fund the government through December 20 that did not include a controversial provision targeting noncitizen voting, which Trump had advocated for and publicly called for a shutdown unless Republicans secured its passage.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Walker, Michigan, on Friday.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday encouraged Michigan voters to vote early and by mail as the state began mailing out ballots this week.

“You can do it right now. We want a landslide that is too big, too rig, too big to rig,” he said, echoing language that he and the Republican National Committee have used when encouraging early and mail voting.

Throughout his remarks, Trump repeatedly accused Democrats of committing election fraud, as he often does on the campaign trail, though there is no evidence to back his claims.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., former independent presidential candidate, again urged Michigan voters on Friday to support Donald Trump — even though Kennedy, himself, remains on the state ballot.

Kennedy said “the only way” to get him to Washington to work on the policies he campaigned on is by getting the former president back in office.

Kennedy also said he was “proud” of Trump after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, while reiterating his desire to see the Russia-Ukraine war come to an end. Trump told reporters ahead of his meeting with Zelensky that he expects to have the war “resolved very quickly” if he wins November’s election, signaling he’s prepared to facilitate peace deal between the two nations.

Kennedy added: “We need a peace, and we need to do it very quickly, and we need to protect US interests, not an interest of a country in which we have no strategic interests and no treaty.”

Former President Donald Trump makes a campaign stop in Walker, Michigan on Friday.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday said he will “get the senators to allow” him to move forward with his trade policies, though he has implied that he can move forward with enforcing high tariffs without congressional approval.

Speaking at a metal panel manufacturing plant in Walker, Michigan, Trump vowed to bring jobs and manufacturing back to the state if he’s elected and railed against executives and “foolish and corrupt politicians,” who he blamed for sending work from Michigan to “foreign lands.”

“I think we have no problem with that, right? We’re going to get the senators to allow us to do it. We’re actually allowed to do it as president. We want to make it permanent,” he continued.

More context: A former senior trade official told CNN earlier this month that Trump can likely apply tariffs he’s proposing unilaterally without approval from Congress, though it is possible lawmakers could amend current law to claw back that trade authority.

Trump again on Friday vowed to put a 100-200% tariff on foreign cars coming into the US.

He also touted ending NAFTA, which he called the “worst trade deal ever made,” and replacing it with the US Mexico Canada Agreement, and withdrawing from the Transpacific Partnership.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to outline plans during her Arizona stop Friday that would make it even harder to lift border restrictions that have largely barred migrants from seeking asylum in the US, according to a senior campaign official.

It’s the clearest example yet of the campaign doubling down on border security by embracing strict rules that have been condemned by some corners of the Democratic party. Harris is expected to go a step further than President Joe Biden’s June executive action by making the threshold for lifting restrictions harder to reach, according to the senior campaign official.

More background: Earlier this year, Biden announced an executive action severely limiting the ability of migrants to seek asylum at the US southern border if they crossed unlawfully —a departure from decades-long protocol. Immigrant advocates have likened the executive action to Trump-era policies.

The measure can be turned on and off and lifted when there’s a daily average of fewer than 1,500 encounters between ports of entry, among other criteria. It remains in place.

Homeland Security officials have credited the action for driving down border crossings to the lowest point since 2020.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks during a rally at in Austin, Texas on May 13.

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to appear on New York’s presidential ballot, even though he suspended his campaign last month and backed former President Donald Trump.

The high court turned away Kennedy’s longshot appeal without comment and there were no noted dissents.

In an emergency appeal filed this month, the former independent presidential candidate argued voters who signed petitions supporting his placement on New York’s ballot had “a constitutional right…to vote for him, whether he is campaigning for their vote or not.”

State election officials dumped Kennedy’s name because he included an invalid address on his nominating petition.

State election officials countered that voters would be “severely harmed” by holding up the mailing of overseas ballots to accommodate Kennedy’s request. Kennedy’s position, they said, would “not only severely disrupt the state’s election processes and trigger substantial voter confusion, but also cause New York to miss federal deadlines for mailing overseas and military ballots.”

Requiring candidates to disclose their home address, as Kennedy failed to do, officials said, was a minimal burden because “a ‘reasonably diligent’ candidate could be expected to provide truthful and accurate information on their candidacy filings.”

North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson speaks at a campaign rally in Asheville, North Carolina on August 14.

North Carolina GOP Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is trailing behind Democrat Josh Stein in the state’s gubernatorial race, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

The poll, which shows Stein up 53% to Robinson’s 36% among likely Tar Heel State voters, was conducted entirely after the publication of CNN’s KFile reporting on Robinson’s inflammatory and racist remarks on a porn website’s message board that led to a lot Republican officials distancing themselves from him.

A 17-point win for a Democratic nominee for governor would be nothing short of historic. The last North Carolina Democrat to win a gubernatorial race by more than Stein’s lead in the CNN poll was Gov. Jim Hunt in 1980.

A 17-point blowout would also be especially large given the closeness of the presidential race in the state. Our poll, like many before it, has the race tied between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. This would suggest that any fallout afflicting Robinson has not harmed Trump to any large degree — political history has shown that a down-ballot scandal rarely harms the top of the ticket.

Read more here.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign signaled early on that it planned to counter former President Donald Trump’s attacks on the vice president and the administration’s handling of border security. Only days after she launched her presidential bid, campaign officials released a video drawing a contrast between Harris and Trump on immigration policy – notably leaning on border security.

“Kamala Harris supports increasing the number of Border Patrol agents. Donald Trump blocked a bill to increase the number of Border Patrol agents,” the voiceover in the video stated.

Harris previously visited the border as vice president and has cited her work as a border-state senator and state attorney general.

Friday’s visit comes at a time when border crossings are the lowest they’ve been since 2020 – and follows a recent New York Times/Siena College poll that showed Trump leading in the battleground state. A Fox News survey of the state that was released on Thursday found no clear leader, with Trump at 50% and Harris at 47% among likely voters.

Harris campaign officials think she has a case on immigration: using the failed bipartisan border measure to cast Trump as unserious at the border and citing her record as California attorney general tackling transnational criminal gangs.

Campaign allies have also stressed the need to look beyond the border and speak to broader immigration reform, pulling from the vice president’s background in the Senate and in California working on immigrant issues.

Read more on Harris’ visit to the US southern border.

As vice presidential candidates Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are preparing to take the debate stage on Tuesday, CBS News announced the official rules, including a 90-minute debate with no opening statements or studio audience.

The network notes it “reserves the right to mute the candidates’ microphones,” however, unlike the presidential debates, mics will be otherwise be hot, according to a release from CBS News.

Walz will appear on the right side of the screen to viewers and Vance on the left side. As the candidate of the incumbent party, Walz will be introduced to the stage first. The candidate who is asked a question will have two minutes to answer and the other candidate will have two minutes to respond. Candidates will have one minute for additional rebuttals. An additional minute to continue a topic may be given at the moderator’s discretion.

Candidates are not permitted to interact with staff during breaks. They are provided a pen, a pad of paper and a water bottle, but no props or pre-written notes are allowed. There will be two commercial breaks four minutes each.

The debate begins at 9 p.m. ET in New York City and is moderated by Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan.

Here’s a list of the debate rules CBS News released today: