Trump surrogates hit the road; Harris disputes his fentanyl claim

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Harris and Trump are scrambling to revise travel plans and tactics as they face a real-time test of how they cope with unexpected crises: a trifecta of life-threatening weather, a war and a looming dockworkers strike that could drive up prices.

Harris’ challenge is to shape a government response without politicizing a moment that calls for bridging national divisions.

Trump’s dilemma is that any condemnation he delivers may call attention to his own actions in 2017, when he blithely tossed paper towels to Puerto Rican residents reeling from Hurricane Maria.

Read the full story here.

Trump claimed without evidence that the Biden-Harris administration is “going out of their way to hurt” Trump voters in rural North Carolina who were affected by Hurricane Helene.

“They’re not getting water, they’re not getting anything,” Trump said in an interview with his former adviser Kellyanne Conway that aired tonight.

Earlier today at a news conference, NBC News’ Garrett Haake asked Trump about a similar claim he made on Truth Social accusing the federal government and Democratic governors of withholding relief.

“Just take a look,” Trump said before he refused to answer follow-up questions.

Ahead of the vice presidential debate between Vance and Walz in New York tomorrow, the Democratic National Committee projected messages on Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.

The projections went up just after 9 p.m. ET and read: “Project 2025 HQ,” “Go Coach Walz,” “Trump is a chicken” and “Trump on Vance: ‘what an idiot,’” appearing next to the Trump Tower sign. The messages were projected on the scaffolding and building adjacent to the midtown Manhattan skyscraper.

“As Vance takes the debate stage to attempt to make up for Trump’s own lackluster debate performance, these projections on Trump Tower NYC are a reminder that Trump and Vance are out for themselves while Trump remains afraid to go back on that debate stage and be held accountable by Vice President Harris for his failed record and his dangerous agenda,” DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman said in a statement.

In an interview today with his former adviser Kellyanne Conway, Trump compared missing migrant children to the Holocaust.

Trump claimed hundreds of thousands of “children are missing. Remember that stat. That would be a stat that — it’s sort of like the Holocaust,” he said. “Many of those children are dead; you’ll never see them again.”

The Nazis killed 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.

Trump made a similar comparison between missing migrant children and the Holocaust in an interview with “Dr. Phil” McGraw in June.

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Biden has privately complained to allies that his name and his accomplishments have virtually disappeared from the national conversation and about how quickly the party that he has served for more than five decades appears to have moved on from him, according to six people familiar with his comments.

Biden has noted at times that Harris, who took his place at the top of the Democratic ticket in July, hasn’t been mentioning him in her campaign speeches lately, including when she talks about an economy he believes his policies set on a positive trajectory, these people said.

And he was particularly stung by one of the recent notable times when she did talk about him — during this month’s debate with Trump, three of the people familiar with his comments said.

Read the full story here.

Reporting from Washington

A majority of voters blame “extreme political rhetoric” from some politicians and media figures for contributing to the assassination attempt targeting Trump in Florida this month, according to the latest NBC News poll, part of a rising trend across a decade-plus of violent attacks on political figures.

Slightly more than half of respondents, 54%, agreed that “extreme political rhetoric used by some in the media and by political leaders was an important contributor” in the days after a gunman was spotted on the fence line outside Trump’s golf course and arrested after fleeing. Another 37% said it was more of an “incident caused by a disturbed person,” and 6% volunteered that it was “some of both.”

Republicans blamed extreme rhetoric 76%-18%, going along with Trump, who quickly blamed Harris’ statements against him for inspiring the attempt. Harris said, “I will be clear: I condemn political violence. We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence.”

Read the full story here.

On Friday, U.S. authorities accused three Iranian men of stealing and leaking files from Trump’s 2024 campaign, the largest “hack and leak” election influence operation since Russia’s breach of Hillary Clinton’s campaign and Democratic organizations in 2016.

Iran’s influence efforts using hacked material from the Trump campaign follow what the U.S. says was a series of brazen influence operations in 2020, all authorized by Tehran’s senior leadership. Iran has consistently denied such allegations.

Iran, like China and Russia, constantly creates fake accounts on U.S. social media platforms in attempts to shift Americans’ opinion, U.S. intelligence officials say. It’s unclear that such operations have had much effect.

Read the full story here.

Democrats want a judge to block the Georgia State Election Board’s newly passed requirement for counties to hand-count ballots cast on Election Day, arguing the eleventh-hour move is unlawful and could cause “chaos” in the battleground state.

The board’s controversial 3-2 vote this month “changes the rules of the game in the ninth inning,” read the suit, which was filed by the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of Georgia, with support from Harris’ campaign.

“In sum, the Hand Count Rule is contrary to the Election Code, exceeds the Board’s rulemaking authority” and “violates foundational limits on agencies that are intended to avoid precisely the scenario here—an unelected body unilaterally making significant changes to the law without notice or explanation,” the suit says.

Read the full story here.

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A judge in Fulton County, Georgia, struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban today, allowing the procedure to resume and making it legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.

The state law, known as the LIFE Act, was signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019 but didn’t take effect until July 2022, after it faced a legal challenge and the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his ruling that a review of “our higher courts’ interpretations of ‘liberty’ demonstrates that liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to contro l her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices.”

Read the full story here.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas today for documents that he said pertained to alleged ties between Walz and the Chinese Communist Party.

The subpoena letter referred to a “non-classified” Microsoft Teams group chat with DHS staff members that allegedly includes relevant information for the Republican-led committee, which in August launched a probe into what it called Walz’s “extensive” engagement with China.

Comer today gave DHS until Oct. 7 to produce the requested documents. DHS and the Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Hurricane Helene has caused significant disruptions for election officials in North Carolina and across the Southeast, scrambling preparations for early and mail voting that have been in the works for months.

In western North Carolina, one of the areas hit hardest by the storm, election officials were working Monday to evaluate what changes needed to be made in a key presidential battleground state where mail ballots started going out last week and early in-person voting is scheduled to begin in three weeks.

North Carolina officials mailed 190,000 ballots last week, some of which may be delayed or destroyed by flooding. Mail service is suspended to many areas, which will halt the transport of the ballots. And there’s more pressure for voters to get their ballots in early this year: State legislators recently eliminated a grace period that allowed ballots with on-time postmarks to be counted even if they arrived three days after the election.

Read the full story here.

Asked about Trump’s false claims that Biden had not spoken to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Biden said Trump was “lying.”

“Let me get this straight. He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying,” Biden said. “I’ve spoken to the governor, I spent time with him, and he told me he’s lying.”

Biden called Trump’s comments “irresponsible.”

“I don’t know why he does this, and the reason I get so angry about — I don’t care about what he says about me,” Biden said. “I care what he communicates to people that are in need, implies that we’re not doing everything possible. We are. We are.”

The White House said Biden spoke by phone today with South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster and Asheville, North Carolina, Mayor Esther Manheimer.

Biden received updates on the recovery efforts and discussed federal support for the area affected by the storm.

After she returned from Las Vegas this afternoon, Harris spoke at the FEMA headquarters, thanked FEMA employees for their hard work and received a briefing from FEMA officials.

Harris said she has spoken to governors of affected states and local officials.

She said she told them “I plan to be on the ground as soon as possible” without disrupting emergency response operations.

“The devastation from Hurricane Helene is immense,” Harris said. “Our nation is with you. We will do everything we can to help you recover and help you rebuild.”

As Vance and Walz prepare to face off in their debate tomorrow, the vice presidential hopefuls have banked several months of campaigning across the country after their sudden elevations into national politics. So have two key players helping shape their messaging and public images: their wives.

While Usha Vance has acted more as a behind-the-scenes adviser, Gwen Walz has been hitting the campaign trail in key swing states as a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign.

Originally from Minnesota, Gwen Walz, a former longtime public school teacher, has always played a big role in her husband’s political career. “We have always worked as a partnership,” she told the podcast “What If It Works” in an interview in July. “We do work really closely together, and there are issues where I do a lot of the work and share my thoughts and briefings with him.”

Read the full story here.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire filed a lawsuit today challenging a new state voting law that would require proof of U.S. citizenship when people register to vote and photo identification when they cast ballots.

The law was signed on Sept. 12 by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, who said the legislation “will instill even more integrity and trust in the voting process.”

The ACLU, whose lawsuit argues that the statute violates the First and 14th amendments, said today that the law is “among the most restrictive in the United States.”

Reporting from Washington

President Joe Biden said today that he plans to visit North Carolina on Wednesday to survey the damage.

More than 100 people have died, according to an NBC News tally. At least 40 people died in western North Carolina’s Buncombe County, where the Asheville is located. Many people are reported to have no running water, electricity or cellphone or internet service.

Biden had saidyesterday that the storm damage was “tragic” and that his administration was trying to determine the number of victims.

Read the full story here.

The New York Times editorial board endorsed Harris, calling her “the only patriotic choice for president.”

The board opened its endorsement by stating, “It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump,” adding that he is both “morally” and “temperamentally” unfit for office.

The endorsement said the”unequivocal, dispiriting truth” that Trump is unfit for office leaves voters with “one patriotic choice” to stand behind Harris, “regardless of any political disagreements voters might have with her.”

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Reporting from Washington

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Rep. Wiley Nickel, D-N.C., are calling for Congress to come back to session to address disaster relief from Hurricane Helene.

Scott said in a statement that once FEMA finishes assessing damage from the hurricane, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., should reconvene the Senate.

Thet assessment from FEMA, however, could take some time.

“While I know from my experience with previous hurricanes that FEMA and SBA damage assessments take time, I am today urging Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to immediately reconvene the U.S. Senate when those assessments are completed so that we can pass the clean supplemental disaster funding bill and other disaster relief legislation, like my Federal Disaster Tax Relief Act, needed to ensure the full recovery of families in all impacted communities,” Scott said.

Nickel called on X for Congress to return to Washington “immediately” to pass a supplemental funding package for disaster relief efforts.

Voto Latino, a civic engagement organization targeting Latino voters, is partnering with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to engage and mobilize Latino voters in eight battleground states, the groups told NBC News.

The partnership will include ev ents with elected officials, including a kickoff event Saturday tied to Hispanic Heritage Month, and digital services to help union members and others register to vote.

SEIU Executive Vice President Rocio Sáenz framed the initiative as a way to engage the union’s 3 million members, who are workers in health care, public services and property services.

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Following a closed-door storm briefing with emergency response officials, Trump twice falsely claimed that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is unable to reach Biden to discuss storm recovery, despite the White House — and Kemp himself — confirming that the two leaders spoke last night.

In an exchange as Trump approached the lectern in Valdosta, a reporter told the former president at the start of a question that Kemp had spoken with Biden, which Trump interrupted by saying: “No, he hasn’t.” Then, moments later, Trump reiterated the same false claim during his remarks.

“The governor needs to — he’s been trying to get them, and I’m sure they’re going to come through, but he’s been calling. The president hasn’t been able to get him, but they’ll come through I’m sure,” Trump said.

Trump said after he surveyed damage from Hurricane Helene at a furniture store in Valdosta, Georgia, that he came down with “truckloads of things,” seemingly in coordination with the aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, which is run by Franklin Graham, the son of the late Christian evangelist Billy Graham, who spoke alongside Trump.

“We have a lot of truckloads of different items, from oil to water to all sorts of equipment that’s going to help them,” Trump said in Valdosta, which is in the southern part of the state, near the Florida border.

The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the U.S., said it launched a seven-figure digital and streaming ad campaign for Harris and Walz today in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — its largest ad buy of this election cycle.

NBC News was first to report the labor group’s ad buy.

“This is the most consequential election in American history for union families,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement. “That’s why we’re laser-focused on ensuring that the union voters who will decide this election know the stakes and know the stark contrast between Kamala Harris’ and Donald Trump’s policies on our jobs, our unions, and our contracts.”

Shuler said the digital ad campaign mirrors conversations happening among union members across various communities.

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While Biden said earlier today that he “may have to request” Congress come back to Washington before its scheduled return in November to address disaster aid in the wake of Hurricane Helene, there is no expectation that Congress will need to do so, multiple people familiar with the situation have told NBC News.

It is rare for Congress to cut a recess short to address an emergency or a disaster, and lawmakers are not scheduled to return to Washington until Nov. 12.

While it is expected that disaster funding will be depleted faster than normal because of Helene, Congress just passed a government funding bill that included a provision to allow the front-loading of funding to meet the current needs, a spokesperson for the Senate Appropriations Committee said.

But with current government funding set to expire by Dec. 20, the medium-to-longer-term funding needs to address the damage left by Helene are likely to require a supplemental disaster aid package, multiple people said.

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Trump said he will doing a “play by play” of the vice presidential debate between Vance and Walz tomorrow night in a post to Truth Social.

“I will be doing a personal PLAY BY PLAY of the Debate tomorrow between the Brilliant J.D. Vance and the Highly Inarticulate ‘Tampon’ Tim Walz,” he wrote, using a nickname that misleadingly characterizes a Minnesota law that mandates that schools provide access to menstrual products in student restrooms.

Trump lobbed attacks at Harris questioning her mental acuity, said he hopes she will be listening to the VP debate, and accused her without evidence of fabricating facts and stories to distract from “administrative failure.”

During the presidential debate between Trump and Harris this month, Vance watched the debate from the Philadelphia convention center and spoke to the news media there on behalf of the campaign.

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The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will pour $67.5 million into key Senate races in the final weeks leading up to the November election, a spokesperson for the group confirmed to NBC News.

The spending is divided between the battleground states of Pennsylvania ($28 million), Wisconsin ($17 million) and Michigan ($22.5 million).

“We’re able to expand the Senate map because we have quality candidates who are keeping their races competitive. Keep it up!” the super PAC’s president and CEO, Steven Law, said in a statement.

Ryan Routh pleaded not guilty in federal court in Florida today to attempting to assassinate Trump.

Routh pleaded not guilty to all five charges, including that he “did intentionally attempt to kill Former President of the United States Donald J. Trump, a major Presidential candidate.” He was shackled at his wrists, waist and ankles during the four-minute appearance.

He looked toward the seated media as he walked toward the defense table and twice gestured the same way, appearing to pantomime scribbling on a notepad and then pointing to himself.

About halfway through Vance’s debate rehearsal in Cincinnati over the weekend, storms knocked out the power at the site where he and his team were staging the practice session, a source familiar with Vance’s debate preparations said. The team used lanterns to light the room and their phones as timers during the second half.

Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., participated in the session, playing Gov. Tim Walz.

“It was very apparent that Emmer took his prep role seriously,” a source familiar with the preparations said. “He had Walz’s rhetorical style down.”

Emmer, the source added, was also acutely familiar with the opposition research on both Vance and Walz, making for a thorough mock debate.

Ahead of the vice presidential debate tomorrow night, Walz’s team has been calling debate camp “Camp North Star,” referring to the Minnesota governor staying true to his folksy nature as a contrast to Vance, a source familiar with the matter said.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg also surprised Walz’s team by showing up to debate prep in a cheap red tie instead of casual attire, the source said.

During debate preparations, Walz has been enjoying northern Michigan by taking time to go hiking, having pizza in downtown Harbor Springs and visiting a local farm.

We got a reminder last week that sometimes the spotlight in the presidential race focuses on one congressional district.

Starting last Thursday, the Trump campaign began its first digital ad campaign specifically targeting Maine’s 2nd Congressional District. That’s notable because Maine, like Nebraska, awards one Electoral College vote to the winner of each district.

Even though Maine has backed the Democratic presidential nominee for decades, the state’s 2nd district is a swingy one, and backed Trump in each of the last two elections.

It’s not a big chunk of change: about $6,100 (Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, provides spending estimates but not exact spending figures). But in the fight for every Electoral College vote, it’s worth keeping tabs on.

Montana voters told NBC News that the most important issues to them include abortion rights, border security, ending foreign wars and limiting the federal government.

Rebecca Egeline, 24, a college student in Helena who plans to vote for Harris, said the key reason she is voting in the November election is “because I want to keep my right to abortion in Montana,” adding that the issue is “an important” and “the biggest one.”

Sarah Thaggard, 34, a custodian and cake decorator in Helena who supports Harris, and Kristen Thomas, 34, a stay-at-home mother from Missoula, also said reproductive rights are their most important issues.

“Absolutely massive with the repeal of Roe v. Wade,” Thaggard said, referring to the issue of reproductive rights.“It’s the first time in my life where I’ve actually felt that my reproductive rights were in question and under attack, and so it’s really important to me that women have a say in their own bodies.”

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., is set to square off against Republican political newcomer Tim Sheehy in a debate tonight. The debate, which will begin at 9 p.m. ET, is the second and likely final debate of the hotly contested Senate race.

The debate will be held at the University of Montana in Missoula. Protests over Sheehy’s reported comments that allegedly contained derogatory rhetoric about Native Americans, particularly the Crow Tribe, and his opposition to abortions rights are expected on campus.

The first debate between Tester and Sheehy happened in June. Tester, who has not endorsed Harris, criticized Biden’s policies on environmental regulations and border security during the debate,

Trump is scheduled to visit Valdosta, Georgia, today, where his campaign said he’ll “receive a briefing on the devastation of Hurricane Helene, facilitate the distribution of relief supplies, and deliver remarks to the press.”

He’ll be visiting a furniture store at 2p.m. in Valdosta, a town in southern Georgia, close to the border of Florida.

The Harris campaign has said it believes the vice president has a chance to win the election Georgia, which Biden won in 2020.

Ahead of the vice presidential debate, a left-leaning coalition released a new ad “narrated by a cat” to contrast Vance and Walz’s records, calling Harris’ running mate “cat-approved.”

The ad, shared first with NBC News, was released by the Care Can’t Wait Action coalition, which pushes for investments in areas including child care and paid family and medical leave.

TUCSON, Ariz. — Harris’ West Coast swing, aimed at ginning up support among Latino voters, is a sign of the larger emphasis she and Trump have placed on pursuing the nation’s second largest racial or ethnic group. But they’re chasing those votes in very different ways.

Trump, whose campaign is barely advertising in Hispanic media, according to AdImpact, is wrapping his appeal to Latino voters in a broader message of prosperity and nostalgia for the pre-pandemic economy under his presidency, while also leaning on high-profile endorsers. Harris’ campaign is pouring more money and effort into advertising, targeted messaging and on-the-ground organizing.

Polling has found that most Latinos prefer Harris over Trump, an advantage Harris’ campaign and voters alike have linked in part to her own upbringing as a daughter of immigrants.

Read the full story here.

Harris has canceled planned campaign stops in Las Vegas today and is flying back to Washington, D.C., for a FEMA briefing on Hurricane Helene, a White House official said.

Harris will be briefed on federal and state-level responses to Helene, which has devastated parts of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina, the official said.

Harris has spoken with North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and contacted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the official said. The vice president intends to visit communities affected by the hurricane as soon as it’s possible to do so without disrupting emergency response operations.

Harris is leading Trump among Latino voters. But that advantage has declined to Democrats’ lowest level in the past four presidential cycles, according to a new national NBC News/Telemundo/CNBC poll.

Overall, the poll shows that Harris has lost some ground with Latinos at a time when these consequential voters are more likely than the general electorate to cite the econo my and the rising cost of living as top priorities. On both of these issues, Latino voters give Trump the advantage, but a majority of them prefer Harris on temperament, competency and having the necessary mental and physical health to be president.

Read the full story here.

LAS VEGAS — Vice President Kamala Harris said yesterday that she would “double” Justice Department resources to crack down on cartels and cut the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., just hours after Trump repeated his false claim that she wants to legalize the drug.

“As president, I will double the resources for the Department of Justice to go after those transnational cartels and take action to stop the flow of fentanyl coming into our country, which is destroying entire communities,” Harris said in her speech here.

She made similar comments during her trip to the southern border in Arizona on Friday.

At a rally Saturday, Trump also discussed fentanyl, baselessly claiming Harris wants to legalize it.

Read the full story here.

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Former President Donald Trump is finally gearing up to an all-out sprint in his bid to reclaim the White House.

Trump, caught flat-footed when Democrats switched horses this summer, has held 26 campaign events this month — mostly rallies — which is more than the 21 he participated in during June and July combined, according to an NBC News analysis of his schedule. The ramp-up started in August, when he held 19 events.

Read the full story here.