Donald Trump is returning to the battleground state of North Carolina Friday to address a meeting of the Fraternal Order of Police as he tries to portray himself as tougher on crime than his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the campaign’s closing months.
Meanwhile, Harris’ campaign announced Friday that it raised $361 million from nearly 3 million donors in her first full month as a candidate. Trump’s team announced Wednesday he brought in $130 million over the same period.
Early voting for the November election will be underway in at least four states by the end of this month.
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Here’s the latest:
North Carolina court orders RFK Jr.’s name off state ballots for president
A North Carolina appeals court on Friday directed that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name be taken off state ballots for president, blocking the planned distribution of absentee ballots later in the day in what would have been the first sent out nationally for the Nov. 5 elections.
The intermediate-level Court of Appeals issued an order granting the request of Kennedy’s attorneys to halt the mailing of ballots with his name. The court also told a trial judge to issue an order telling the State Board of Elections to distribute ballots without Kennedy’s name on the ballot.
State law otherwise required the first absentee ballots be mailed or transmitted no later than 60 days before the general election, which was Friday. The process of reprinting and assembling ballot packages likely would take over two weeks, state attorneys have said. Friday’s ruling could be appealed.
Kennedy, named earlier this summer the nominee of the We The People party, had sued last week to get off North Carolina ballots after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Republican nominee Donald Trump. But the Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections rejected the request, saying it was too late in the process of printing ballots and coding tabulation machines.
Trump appears in court as his lawyers try to overturn verdict in sex abuse suit
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump appeared in court on Friday as his team tries to overturn a verdict finding him liable for sexual abuse and slander. Trump walked in quietly and passed right in front of writer E. Jean Carroll, who brought the lawsuit against him, and did not acknowledge or look at her.
Trump reacted at times such as shaking his head when Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, said that Trump sexually assaulted her client. He would tilt his head from side to side periodically but otherwise sat still and mostly alone.
When the hearing concluded, Trump stood up and his lawyers approached him briefly. He did not appear to say anything, then looked up and stood for a few moments before walking out of the courtroom.
From stirring to cringey: Memorable moments from past presidential debates
It could be a well-rehearsed zinger, a too-loud sigh — or a full performance befuddled enough to shockingly end a sitting president’s reelection bid.
Notable moments from past presidential debates demonstrate how the candidates’ words and body language can make them look especially relatable or hopelessly out-of-touch — showcasing if a candidate is at the top of their policy game or out to sea. Will past be prologue when Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday?
“Being live television events, without a script, without any way of knowing how they are going to evolve — anything can happen,” said Alan Schroeder, author of “Presidential Debates: 50 years of High-Risk TV.”
▶ Read more about some highs, lows and curveballs from presidential debates past.
New DNC billboards in North Carolina target Trump ahead of his planned visit
The Democratic National Committee is up with new digital billboards in the battleground state of North Carolina as former president and GOP nominee Donald Trump plans to visit the state for a meeting of law officers.
The DNC says its digital billboards are running in half a dozen locations around Charlotte, where Trump is slated to speak later Friday at a gathering of the Fraternal Order of Police.
One bears only the text “TRUMP 2024” and “CONVICTED FELON.” Another notes the “140 Police Officers Assaulted” at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, along with what Trump has said about wanting to “Pardon the Capitol rioters.”
A third billboard says that the Project 2025 plan “Gives Trump Virtually Unchecked Legal Power.”
Feds to observe Tuesday’s primary election in Rhode Island city
The Justice Department announced Friday it will send federal observers to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to ensure compliance with federal voting rights laws in Tuesday’s primary election.
This comes after federal prosecutors filed a lawsuit earlier this year alleging the city failed to make voting information, forms, instructions and ballots available in Spanish, violating sections of the federal Voting Rights Act.
A federal court in May approved a consent decree to resolve the claims. The decree also addressed a claim that Pawtucket election officials didn’t allow voters to cast a provisional ballot or properly train poll workers on provisional ballots, violating a section of the Help America Vote Act.
The agency regularly sends observers to monitor compliance with federal civil rights laws in elections in communities across the country.
Harris raised $361 million in August from nearly 3 million donors, campaign says
Vice President Kamala Harris raised well more than double what former President Donald Trump took in from donors in August, her campaign announced Friday, saying it raised $361 million from nearly 3 million donors in her first full month as a candidate.
Trump’s team announced Wednesday he brought in $130 million over the same period. Harris’ team says it ended the month with $404 million on hand for the final sprint to Election Day, $109 million more than Trump’s campaign says it had at the end of August.
The massive Harris war chest is being used to fund a $370 million paid media effort for the final two months of the campaign, and to pay for its more than 2,000 field staff spread through more than 310 offices in battleground states.
Harris’ fundraising builds on the $310 million she raised in July, the overwhelming majority of which came in after she took over President Joe Biden’s campaign after he dropped out that month. The ticket swap has helped the Democratic party reverse the fundraising edge Trump had developed in the prior months when voter doubts about Biden’s fitness for another term dampened donor — and voter — enthusiasm.
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Donald Trump returns to North Carolina to speak at Fraternal Order of Police meeting
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Donald Trump is returning to the battleground state of North Carolina Friday to address a meeting of the Fraternal Order of Police as he tries to portray himself as tougher on crime than his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the campaign’s closing months.
Trump is scheduled to address FOP’s National Board of Trustees fall meeting in Charlotte. The FOP, the world’s largest organization of law enforcement officers, endorsed Trump’s reelection bid in 2020, with its president saying on behalf of its 373,000 members that Trump had “made it crystal clear that he has our backs.”
The imagery of the former president and GOP nominee in a room of law enforcement officers offers Trump the platform to contrast their support with his characterization of Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general whom Trump has called the “ringleader” of a “Marxist attack on law enforcement” across the country.
▶ Read more here.
Walz says a ceasefire, return of hostages is only way forward in Israel-Hamas war
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz was asked on WCMU in Michigan Thursday how a Harris administration would handle the Israel-Hamas war and whether his running mate would break with President Joe Biden, who has steadfastly supported Israel while working to broker a ceasefire.
Walz said the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that touched off the war, was “a horrific act of violence against the people of Israel. They certainly have the right to defend themselves.”
But, he said, “we can’t allow what’s happened in Gaza to happen. The Palestinian people have every right to life and liberty themselves.”
He said those protesting the war in Michigan were speaking out for “all the right reasons.”
He said the only way forward was a ceasefire and return of hostages. He didn’t mention the revelation earlier this week that six additional hostages had been killed by Hamas.
JD Vance pedals Trump’s message on mass deportations
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is promoting Donald Trump’s plans to deport people living in the country illegally at record levels.
The Ohio senator spoke to a friendly crowd of about 300 people at a Phoenix hotel, saying a second Trump administration would “finish that beautiful border wall,” stop releasing asylum seekers while they await a court hearing and end Medicare benefits for people living in the country illegally, though unauthorized immigrants are not currently eligible for Medicare.
“I have a message from Donald J. Trump,” Vance said. “If you are in this country illegally in six months, pack your bags.”
Judge OKs prosecutors’ request to lay out fresh evidence in Trump election case
The federal election interference case against Donald Trump is inching forward.
A judge on Thursday permitted prosecutors to file court documents later this month that could detail unflattering allegations about the former president as the Republican nominee enters the final weeks of his White House run.
The order came hours after a court hearing in which U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan sparred with a Trump lawyer who accused the government of trying to rush ahead with an “illegitimate” indictment in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
Chutkan made clear she would not let the upcoming election affect how she proceeds. She turned aside defense efforts to delay the process while also acknowledging that the case is nowhere close to a trial date.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers are bitterly at odds over the next steps in the case after the Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the prosecution by ruling that former presidents are entitled to broad immunity from criminal charges. The case against Trump charges him with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Special counsel Jack Smith’s team filed a revised indictment last week to strip out certain allegations against Trump for which the Supreme Court said the former president enjoyed immunity. Defense lawyers, however, believe that that indictment did not fully comply with the justices’ ruling.
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