Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is making his first campaign visit to battleground Georgia since a feud between the former president and Republican Gov. Brian Kemp ended last month with Kemp endorsing Trump.
Trump is speaking Tuesday in Savannah, Georgia, which has one of the busiest ports in the country for cargo shipped in containers. He’s set to reveal incentives for foreign firms to leave other countries and migrate to the U.S. The former president wants to personally recruit foreign companies and to send members of his administration to do the same.
Some Republicans fear Georgia has gotten more politically competitive in the two months since Vice President Kamala Harris launched her presidential bid after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection efforts. Harris spoke Friday in Atlanta, calling Trump a threat to women’s freedoms and warning voters he would continue to limit access to abortion if elected president.
Trump’s running mate JD Vance is holding a rally later this week in Georgia as well as paying a visit to Macon.
Georgia is one of several presidential swing states that have new or recently altered state laws setting the rules for November’s election. In Georgia, election workers will have to hand count the number of ballots cast after voting is completed. In North Carolina, some students and university staff can use their digital IDs to vote. In Wisconsin, ballot drop boxes are newly legal again, although not every voting jurisdiction will use them.
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Here’s the latest:
Trump campaign says the former president has been briefed on Iran threats
Donald Trump’s campaign says the former president has been briefed on “real and specific” threats from Iran to “assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.”
Spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement that Trump was briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and that officials have identified that “continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months.”
Law enforcement agencies are working to ensure Trump is protected “and free from interference,” Cheung said.
He added that Iran “is terrified” of Trump’s “strength and resolve.”
Trump flubs off-script reference to Charlottesville during economic policy speech
Donald Trump flubbed the name of Charlottesville, Virginia, while going off script during a speech otherwise focused on economic policy, slamming Vice President Kamala Harris for lying about “Charlottestown.”
The former president was talking about imposing tariffs and other steps he’d take to bolster U.S. manufacturing when he veered off topic and began arguing that he won the recent debate.
“She didn’t say anything except lies like bloodbath, like Charlottestown,” Trump said of Harris.
He didn’t acknowledge the error directly, but quickly added that he was, “finishing this topic, because they’ll say, ‘Oh, he fell into a trap’” — when in fact he’d already made a conspicuous mistake.
Trump was trying to refer to the deadly 2017 violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacists and anti-racist protesters. Trump has faced years of criticism from Harris and other top Democrats for blaming “both sides” for what occurred.
Georgia justices weigh whether to disqualify 2 candidates from presidential ballot
Georgia Supreme Court justices are expressing skepticism that votes for presidential candidates Cornel West and Claudia De la Cruz should count.
Tuesday’s hearing could set the stage for disqualifying the candidate from the Georgia’s ballots. Democrats are trying to prevent others from siphoning votes from Vice President Kamala Harris.
They argue West and De la Cruz failed to qualify because their presidential electors didn’t each submit a separate petition to access Georgia’s ballots.
Lawyers for the candidates say such a ruling would create an unconstitutionally high barrier to ballot access. If justices disqualify West and De la Cruz, their names would likely appear on Georgia’s ballots. But votes for them wouldn’t be counted.
Harris backs eliminating filibuster to pass law guaranteeing abortion rights
Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris says she supports reforming Senate rules in order to pass a law that would restore abortion protections lost when Roe fell.
The rules are around the filibuster. When a senator wants to prevent a vote on a bill they refuse to yield the floor. And it takes 60 votes to force them to stand down — and that means almost any major bill requires 60 votes to pass. The Senate is split 50-50 and the tie-breaking vote goes to the Vice President. But the rules mean GOP senators could block any effort to reform abortion rights.
Harris said on Wisconsin Public Radio that she favored eliminating the filibuster for Roe, to “get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to put back into law the protections.”
It’s a position President Joe Biden has also supported. He does not support eliminating it all together – just the exception to pass abortion rights.
Poll shows strong Harris strengthening support among Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander voters
A new survey finds that around 6 in 10 Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander registered voters have a very of somewhat favorable opinion of Harris, compared to just 3 in 10 for Trump.
AAPI voters are also more likely to believe that she is the candidate who better represents their background and policy views.
The survey from AAPI Data and APIAVote marks an increase in favorability for Harris since October 2023, when an AP-NORC/AAPI Data poll found that about half of AAPI adults had a somewhat or very favorable view of her. Opinions of Trump among this group have remained stable.
Harris is both Black and South Asian American, and has worked to rally AAPI voters in swing states like Georgia where their numbers are growing. But while the poll indicates that AAPI voters are much more likely to see their own cultural identity reflected in her than in Trump — about half of AAPI voters say Harris better represents their background and culture, while only about 1 in 10 say this about Trump — it’s not clear how much this is influencing their perspectives on the candidates.
Trump listens to farmers before raucous Pennsylvania rally
Trump spoke Monday to a small group of farmers in Smithton in rural Pennsylvania, breaking with his usual campaign form by listening more than he talked.
The former president asked questions and offered a few jokes. But he mostly listened quietly as farmers from the area explained their economic difficulties. Trump also stopped at a market and gave a woman checking out a $100 bill to help pay for groceries — further showing off a softer side.
He reverted back to form during a raucous evening event in Indiana, Pennsylvania, sharply criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris and suggesting without evidence that this year’s contest would be the last election should he lose.
“I don’t like anybody that doesn’t like me, I’ll be honest,” he said before adding, “sounds childish” but “that’s the way it is … call it a personality defect.”
Walz slams Trump’s ‘drill baby, drill’ catchphrase, warns about climate change
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told a group of about 30 donors focused on climate change that Trump’s energy catchphrase to “drill baby, drill” is “not a solution to things, and the public knows that it’s a cheap, easy thing.”
The Democratic vice presidential nominee, speaking at a midtown Manhattan hotel to an audience that included former presidential candidate Tom Steyer and Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, called climate change an “existential threat” but also “an incredible opportunity to grow our economy.”
Walz cited farmers who use their land to generate wind energy in addition to growing crops.
He also praised Harris for casting the tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate on the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s 2022 law to flight climate change.
Walz is scheduled to speak at a series of fundraisers in New York on Monday.
Vance and Walz pick stand-ins to prepare for vice presidential debate
Doppelgangers have been selected to help prepare for the vice presidential debate next week.
Walz’s mock debates will feature Pete Buttigieg, the U.S. transportation secretary, playing Vance.
Meanwhile, Vance’s preparations include Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer in the role of Walz.
The choices were disclosed by people with knowledge of the candidates’ preparations
Walz and Vance are scheduled to face off on Oct. 1.
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