As Florida grapples with the effects of Hurricane Milton, presidential campaigning remains in full swing in battleground states across the U.S.
Vice President Kamala Harris will attend a Univision town hall in Las Vegas on Thursday afternoon before going to an evening rally in Phoenix while remaining in close contact with the White House and monitoring federal disaster response efforts.
Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, will speak at the Economic Club of Detroit after holding rallies in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
Even amid the hurricane, however, both the Harris and Trump campaigns are using their travel strategically, trying to increase support with key voting blocs who could decide an election expected to be exceedingly close.
Former President Barack Obama is also hitting the campaign trail on Thursday night, making his first appearance for Harris at a rally in Pittsburgh. That begins what the Harris campaign says will be a series of campaign stops Obama will make on the vice president’s behalf.
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Here’s the latest:
Harris agrees to CNN town hall after Trump rules out another debate
Vice President Kamala Harris has agreed to CNN town hall on Oct. 23 in Pennsylvania, her campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said in a Thursday statement.
It comes after former President Donald Trump ruled out another debate with Harris after their first head-to-head contest last month. Harris had called for Trump to face her once more before polls close.
“Donald Trump’s refusal to join Vice President Harris on the debate stage again is a disservice to the American people, O’Malley Dillon said in a statement. “They deserve to see the candidates side-by-side one more time before casting their ballots for one last look at their vastly different visions for America. After backing out of 60 Minutes and doing 27 straight interviews with conservative media, unfortunately it is clear Trump would rather cocoon himself in safe spaces and avoid real questions about his harmful plans and failed divisive leadership.”
Trump says CBS should lose its broadcast license due to ‘60 Minutes’ editing
Donald Trump says CBS should lose its broadcast license over the way “60 Minutes” edited its interview with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this week.
Trump, in a post on his social media site, accused the network of perpetrating a “giant Fake News Scam” after different CBS shows, “60 Minutes” and “Face the Nation,” depicted Harris giving different answers, an apparent result of editing.
“TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE. Election Interference,” Trump railed. “She is a Moron, and the Fake News Media wants to hide that fact.”
CBS has not responded to questions about the apparent discrepancies.
This is not the first time Trump has threatened to go after a network’s license.
He has said ABC deserved to lose theirs after they moderated his debate with Harris, and has previously threatened NBC and CNN for reporting he didn’t like.
UAW chief calls Trump the ‘job-killer-in-chief’
The Harris campaign openly challenged Trump’s economic record ahead of the Republican nominee’s Thursday speech in Detroit, part of a broader effort to chip away at the former president’s credibility.
On a call with reporters organized by the campaign, Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, called Trump the “job-killer-in-chief.” Despite Trump’s promises to bring back factory jobs, Fain said, “The reality is Trump never brought back squat.”
Back in 2000, Michigan had nearly 900,000 factory jobs. That number nearly halved after the 2008 financial crisis, only to then slowly recover 633,900 jobs in 2018. But factory work in Michigan began to slump in 2019 and then plunged during the pandemic, all during Trump’s term. Labor Department data show that manufacturing work in the state still hasn’t fully recovered with there being 604,800 jobs in the sector as of August.
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