Harris and Trump race to make pitch to voters in final campaign sprint

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance accused the Biden-Harris administration of mismanaging the response to Hurricane Helene in a Tuesday op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, claiming “a bureaucratic bottleneck was delaying the deployment of active-duty military personnel to the western mountains of North Carolina.”

Vance said, “As evening fell on Friday, Oct. 4, fewer than half of the 1,000 troops were conducting operations and deployed to Western North Carolina.” He said that statements from North Carolina Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis “seemed to have an effect” on the national response, given that on Sunday, the Pentagon authorized an additional 500 troops.

President Joe Biden issued a statement Sunday that outlined how his administration is “sparing no resource” to support families as they begin rebuilding and announced an additional 500 active-duty troops to assist.

Arguing that Hurricane Helene’s response “has been the victim of misplaced Biden-Harris political priorities,” Vance said, “FEMA has funneled millions of dollars to nongovernmental organizations whose stated goal is facilitating mass migration into the U.S.”

“The effort stems from a White House directive to reorient FEMA’s institutional focus away from U.S. citizens and toward aliens who either have no legal right to be here or whose legal status depends on the say-so of the Biden-Harris administration,” Vance said.

Some background: Vance’s comments come as former President Donald Trump has claimed that the Biden administration has spent FEMA money on housing undocumented immigrants. As CNN’s Daniel Dale reported, Congress appropriated $650 million in the 2024 fiscal year to fund a program that helps state and local governments house migrants — and instructed US Customs and Border Protection to transfer that $650 million to FEMA to administer the program. But this $650 million pot is entirely distinct from FEMA’s pot of disaster relief funds.

Ethel Kennedy attends a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston on September 20, 2016.

Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy and mother of former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is receiving hospital treatment after suffering a stroke last week, her grandson said Tuesday.

“I wanted to let you know about my incredible grandmother, Ethel Kennedy. She has had a great summer and transition into fall. Every day she enjoyed time with her children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She was able to get out on the water, visit the pier, and enjoy many lunches and dinners with family. It has been a gift to all of us and to her as well. Unfortunately, on Thursday morning she suffered a stroke in her sleep,” Joe Kennedy III said in a post on X.

“She was brought to an area hospital, where she is now receiving treatment. She is comfortable, she is getting the best care possible, and she is surrounded by family,” the former congressman continued.

Ethel shared 11 children with Robert F. Kennedy, who she married in 1950. The former New York senator and US attorney general was assassinated in 1968 while a presidential candidate.

An environmental and human rights activist, Kennedy, 96, helped found the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, which supports the causes championed by Robert F. Kennedy. In 2014, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

Kennedy’s grandson on Tuesday asked for thoughts, prayers and his family’s privacy.

President Joe Biden walks down the steps of Air Force One at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Tuesday, October 8, to attend a campaign event for Sen. Bob Casey.

President Joe Biden blasted former President Donald Trump following new reporting that Trump secretly shipped Russian President Vladimir Putin Covid-19 testing equipment for his personal use during the height of the pandemic, according to reporters in the room during Biden’s remarks at a Philadelphia fundraiser Tuesday.

“He called his good friend Putin, not a joke, and made sure he had the tests. He had the tests. What the hell’s wrong with this guy?” Biden said.

Earlier Tuesday, CNN reported on excerpts from journalist Bob Woodward’s upcoming book, “War,” which details the close ties between Trump and Putin, including the revelation that there have been “maybe as many as seven” calls between the two leaders since Trump left the White House in 2021.

Pennsylvania Senate race: Biden was speaking at a fundraiser for Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, who faces Republican Dave McCormick in November. According to pool reporters in the room, Biden said McCormick “is in lockstep with Donald Trump, voted by historians as the most dishonorable president in American history.”

In his remarks Tuesday, the president painted the race for Pennsylvania’s Senate seat as a battle of “Scranton values versus Mar-a-Lago values,” a line he used repeatedly when still running for reelection.

And he called Casey, whose family he said he knew growing up in Scranton, “a man of character” who “keeps his word.”

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday said it was asking North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and the state legislature to expand voter access for those affected by the devastation of Hurricane Helene.

Trump co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita outlined 10 actions they believed would “ensure the people who have already suffered from the storm don’t lose their right to participate in this important election.”

The campaign is asking North Carolina leaders to:

Some background: North Carolina’s election board unanimously passed a resolution Monday to grant the counties most affected by Hurricane Helene the ability to add or remove early voting sites and to adjust the schedules for those sites. It also permits displaced voters to drop off absentee ballots at other county boards of election where they have relocated.

In a move that critics are calling a flagrant abuse of power, Florida’s Department of Health is threatening to bring criminal charges against local TV stations airing a campaign ad to overturn the state’s six-week abortion ban signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The unusual warning from the Republican-controlled state agency prompted the Democratic chair of the Federal Communications Commission to step in on Tuesday.

Jessica Rosenworcel, the FCC chair, said that stations should not be intimidated for airing political ads.

“The right of broadcasters to speak freely is rooted in the First Amendment,” Rosenworcel said in a statement. “Threats against broadcast stations for airing content that conflicts with the government’s views are dangerous and undermine the fundamental principle of free speech.”

The FCC’s show of support for the stations is noteworthy given the federal agency controls broadcast station licenses across the country.

The Florida Department of Health, however, cited local statutes in the cease-and-desist letters sent last week to WCJB in Gainesville and WFLA in Tampa.

The threat from the health department underscores the intensity of the political battle over Amendment 4, a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in Florida’s constitution. The state government led by DeSantis has campaigned aggressively against the amendment, including by running its own TV ads.

The health department did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment about the FCC rebuke. The local stations did not respond to requests for comment, but both stations continued to air the ads on Tuesday.

Read more about battle over the abortion rights ad in Florida here.

Former President Donald Trump said he was campaigning in Democratic stronghold California this weekend because “I felt I owed it to them.”

Asked Tuesday on “The John Kobylt Show” why he “would waste any time and money” campaigning in the Golden State, Trump responded: “We have a lot of support in California and I felt I owed it to them” before praising the location where he’ll hold the rally.

The rally is scheduled to take place Saturday at Calhoun Ranch in Coachella, California. “And he really wanted to do it, he’s a great gentleman,” Trump said of the landowner.

Trump said earlier in the interview that he thought he would “win it in a landslide” if there was an “honest election” in California, despite Democrats carrying the state in the last seven presidential elections.

Some background: Trump has falsely claimed for years that US vote counts are plagued by major fraud. In the last month, he has declared he would win Democratic-dominated California if there was an “honest” vote count. The votes are counted honestly in California, and Trump lost the state in 2020 by more 5 million votes and more than 29 percentage points.

War is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history.

In his new book, legendary journalist Bob Woodward offers a remarkable look behind the scenes at President Joe Biden’s blunt, profanity-laced assessments and interactions with the world leaders who have shaped his presidency. The book also reveals new details about Donald Trump’s private conversations with Vladimir Putin — and a secret shipment of Covid-19 testing equipment Trump sent to the Russian president for his personal use.

The book, “War,” was obtained by CNN before its October 15 publication.

Among the new details in the book:

In a statement, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said the former president gave Woodward “absolutely no access” for the book. “None of these made up stories by Bob Woodward are true,” he said.

Asked about the details that Woodward reports about Biden and Netanyahu, White House senior deputy press secretary Emilie Simons told reporters Tuesday, “They have a long-term relationship. They have a very honest and direct relationship, and I don’t have a comment on those specific anecdotes.”

Read the full report.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called for the abolishment of the Electoral College during a campaign fundraiser in California on Tuesday, according to reporters traveling with the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

Walz told supporters gathered at Gov. Gavin Newsom’s private residence in Sacramento that he believes “the Electoral College needs to go” and called for presidential elections to be determined by the winner of the national popular vote.

Walz’s call for eliminating the Electoral College is not an official campaign position, a Harris campaign official told CNN.

“Governor Walz believes that every vote matters in the Electoral College and he is honored to be traveling the country and battleground states working to earn support for the Harris-Walz ticket. He was commenting to a crowd of strong supporters about how the campaign is built to win 270 electoral votes,” a campaign spokesperson said in a statement.

Vice President Kamala Harris has previously expressed openness to eliminating the Electoral College. During a 2019 interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” Harris, who was running for president at the time, said she was “open to the discussion” of abolishing the Electoral College.

Walz reacts to Woodward book: Walz also reacted to new reporting from Bob Woodward that former President Donald Trump provided Russian President Vladimir Putin with a secret shipment of Covid-19 testing equipment in 2020, telling the Sacramento audience the news “boils my blood.”

“This latest revelation, I think as a governor, boils my blood. While Donald Trump threw us into hunger games, pitting one against the other … now we find out Donald Trump’s giving Vladimir Putin things that we couldn’t even get for our own people,” Walz said.

This post has been updated with comment from the Harris campaign.

Sen. Mitt Romney participates in an event at University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics on Tuesday, October 8.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, a strong critic of former President Donald Trump, walked right up to the line of committing to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris during an event on Tuesday. However, he said he would not go any further because he worries it would hurt his position in a future, non-Trumpian Republican Party.

“My own view is that I want to continue to have a voice in the Republican Party, following this election — because I think there is a good shot that the Republican Party is going to have to be rebuilt or reoriented, either after this election, or, if Donald Trump is reelected, after he’s the president — and believe I will have more influence in the party by virtue of saying it as I’ve said it.”

The Utah senator, who is not running for reelection, added that since he voted to convict Trump in both of the former president’s impeachment trials, “I think where I stand on Donald Trump is pretty clear.”

Romney noted he believes that Trump will win the White House, in part due to Democrats playing to their base on social issues.

“I think the reason the Democratic Party is in trouble this year — in my opinion, will likely lose the presidential race … is not because of their policy, but it’s because of the positions they’ve taken on cultural issues,” he said.

Sen. JD Vance speaks at a campaign event at Eastern Market Tuesday, October 8, in Detroit.

Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said he believes China is the biggest threat to the United States, after Harris identified Iran as the greatest adversary of the United States in an interview with 60 Minutes.

“I think, man, it revealed that Kamala Harris seems to be totally fine with starting or escalating a conflict in every continent, all over the world. Donald Trump believes peace through strength. Stop the killing, get Americans out of harm’s way, and focus on building a peaceful globe. That is how you help Palestinians. That’s how you help Israelis. But most importantly, it’s how you help American citizens, is peace,” Vance said.

Vance said his pitch to Arab American voters on why they should vote for Donald Trump is that he will bring “peace” to the Middle East region.

“Arab Americans often have different views than Jewish Americans on what’s going on in Israel, what’s going on in Palestine. But I think both Jewish Americans and Arab Americans recognize that what’s in the best interest of Israel and Palestine is peace. And Donald J. Trump was the president of peace,” Vance said.

The reporter who asked the question about Arab Americans mentioned how Trump falsely said that he had visited Gaza, but Vance did not address that.

Vance also said that the Trump campaign is “thrilled” to have the support of Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib, who the Detroit News notes is the first Arab American and first Muslim to lead the city, which has a large Muslim population.

“I’m not meeting any Arab American or Muslim American leaders on this particular trip, though, we certainly will in future trips to Michigan,” Vance said.

A question written on an orange was rolled to Sen. JD Vance on his campaign plane on Tuesday, Octoaber 8.

A traveling press tradition played out on Sen. JD Vance’s campaign plane this afternoon, as the network reporters covering the campaign and one print reporter rolled an orange with a question to the front of the plane where Vance was seated.

While CNN’s attempt to send the orange forward slightly dented the fruit, ABC effectively bowled the orange up toward Vance’s seat.

Within minutes, Vance returned the orange with an answer to his favorite song: “Ten Years Gone” by Led Zeppelin.

Yesterday, the reporters covering Walz asked the vice presidential nominee who his dream dinner guest is on their own orange and he replied Bruce Springsteen.

During the first week of October, Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign put more money behind ads about health care while Donald Trump ramped up criticism of the vice president’s positions on LGBTQ issues, and outside groups continued launching stark attack ads, advertising data shows.

The ad tracking firm AdImpact catalogs the issues that are referenced in broadcast TV campaign ads and tracks the amount of money behind those spots. Comparing changes month-to-month and even week-to-week can show how each campaign is tailoring its message, and it shows the share of campaign resources spent highlighting various issues.

Harris campaign

Between August and September, the Harris campaign moved away from defensive ads that stressed the vice president’s law enforcement background, toward more ads touting on her economic proposals and also focused on abortion rights – a key issue for many Democratic and independent voters since Roe v. Wade was overturned and severe restrictions on the procedure were enacted in mostly Republican-led states.

Now, in the first full week of the final full month of campaign, ad data shows how health care and abortion rights are becoming a more dominant share of Harris campaign messaging.

Out of a total of $16.1 million that the Harris campaign spent on broadcast TV ads during the first week of October (10/1 - 10/7), about $7.2 million (44%) went to ads that referenced health care, the top ranked issue in Harris advertising, up from 17% in September.

Trump campaign

On the other side, in the first week of October, the Trump campaign continued to emphasize economic issues, but also ramped up its criticism of Harris’ positions on LGBTQ issues – in particular, replaying clips of Harris during her 2020 presidential campaign expressing support for taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for detained immigrants and federal prisoners.

“It sounds insane because it is insane,” says an ad that the Trump campaign has spent more than $6 million airing over the last week. “Kamala was the first to help pay for a prisoner’s sex change.”

That attack has been echoed in several other ads from the Trump campaign, and it’s driven LGBTQ rights to the second most-referenced issue in ads from the campaign during the first week of the month – more than half of its total broadcast TV spend in that period going to ads about the issue, up from 17% in September and 0% in August.

Overall, the top issue in Trump campaign ads during the first week of October was taxation, referenced in three-quarters of its broadcast TV advertising, as the campaign repeatedly warned that Harris would “significantly” raise taxes – a claim that has drawn the ire of fact checkers, including CNN’s Daniel Dale.

Georgia's State Election Board members discuss proposals for election rule changes at the state capitol on September 20 in Atlanta.

The Donald Trump-allied Georgia State Election Board is pushing to install people who deny the result of the 2020 presidential election as part of a monitoring team in Fulton County, the biggest Democratic-leaning county in the state and one that was consequential for Joe Biden’s victory four years ago.

The board has no legal authority to install its own recommended monitors, but that did not stop the GOP majority from voting on Tuesday to repeat its effort to include its own suggested monitoring team in Fulton County. The move, coming less than 30 days before Election Day, is the latest example of what critics say is the board acting in a way that may create chaos next month.

Asked by CNN whether this was an effort to get partisan election deniers to be part of the monitoring teams, board member Dr. Janice Johnston said, “absolutely not” while also conceding the decision on who monitors election precincts is ultimately up to the county.

Fulton County, meanwhile, has sued the board, objecting to the push to force it to use election deniers as monitors.

Fulton County has already agreed to a monitoring team proposal that would include Ryan Germany, a former staff attorney for the Georgia secretary of state during the 2020 election, as well as members of The Carter Center, former President Jimmy Carter’s non-profit organization which has been internationally acclaimed for its election monitoring.

But GOP members of the state-election board told CNN neither Germany nor the Carter Center should be allowed to be a monitor because of bias.

The Carter Center has a world-renowned reputation of election observation, Johnston said, but that’s “in the past.”

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance downplayed a $500 million investment by the federal government when asked on Tuesday about his refusal to commit to continuing funding from the Biden administration to convert a GM Cadillac plant in Lansing, Michigan, to an electric vehicle plant.

“What we’ve said is that Kamala Harris is offering table scraps. $500 million when you have an EV mandate that’s going to cost 117,000 autoworker jobs. I think that Michigan autoworkers deserve more than table scraps and Kamala Harris’ Green New Deal,” he continued.

Last week in Flint, Harris criticized Vance for not committing to continue grant funding for the Lansing plant, telling voters they “deserve a president” who won’t jeopardize the estimated 650 jobs preserved by federal funding.

Vance had said early last week in Michigan that the $500 million grant “came along with some really ridiculous strings and no protections for American jobs not getting shipped to foreign countries” when asked if he would continue the funding.

The Ohio Republican said on Tuesday in Detroit “if you force Americans to buy electric vehicles they don’t want that are made in China, you’re going to throw this entire state into poverty and Donald Trump and I will not stand for it.”

Harris notably made clear to Michigan voters during her remarks on Friday that she would “never tell you what kind of car you have to drive,” as the Republican ticket continues to point to incentives put in place by the Biden administration to ramp up EV production as an indicator that Harris would issue a total EV mandate.

Democratic Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin has started running ads in the state also making clear that she will not prevent Michigan voters from buying non-electric vehicles.

Vice President Kamala Harris, right, and former Congresswoman Liz Cheney greet attendees during a campaign event at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin, on Thursday, October 3.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday deflected on whether she would appoint Republican former Rep. Liz Cheney as a Cabinet member if she is elected, saying she has to first win November’s election before making a decision.

“She has shown extraordinary courage this moment where there’s such violent, divisive language that she would put herself out so publicly and say … country before party. And you know, she and I don’t agree on everything, but the fundamentals, we do agree on,” Harris added.

Cheney appeared on the campaign trail with Harris for the first time last week in Ripon, Wisconsin, where she said she has “never voted for a Democrat, but would be “proudly casting” her vote for Harris.

Earlier today, Harris suggested that she will have a Republican in her cabinet.

“Listen, I plan on having a Republican in my cabinet,” Harris said during an interview on The View.

Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday said “nobody can really predict” the effect that Hurricanes Helene and Milton will have on the November election.

Trump said in the interview of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, “They should do a double 25th Amendment just get them both out, who’s third in line? Because it’s just terrible.”

The former president praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, his former GOP presidential primary rival, for his response to the hurricanes.

“I think Ron’s doing a good job. I see him all over television. He’s all over the place. I left Florida last night, and it was starting to get nasty already,” Trump said.

More context: Trump has escalated his long-running assault on the integrity of US elections as the 2024 presidential campaign enters its final stretch, using a new series of lies about ballots, vote-counting and the election process to lay the groundwork to challenge a potential defeat in November.

Nonpartisan democracy experts say they’re seeing many of the same warning signs that were blinking red before Election Day four years ago, when Trump flooded the zone with election lies and conspiracy theories that he amplified after losing to Joe Biden. His campaign of deception culminated in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Read more about the lies Trump is using to set the stage to dispute a potential 2024 defeat.

Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris chats with the hosts during a commercial break at The View on Tuesday, October 8, in New York.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday proposed broadening Medicare benefits to cover home health care for the first time, as she seeks to appeal to Americans caring for both children and aging parents.

Harris, who has promised on the campaign trail to improve long-term care, said the proposal will allow aging Americans to keep their dignity and help families with the emotional, financial and physical burdens of caring for their elders.

“We’re finding that so many are then having to leave their job, which means losing a source of income, not to mention the emotional stress,” Harris said Tuesday.

Covering home health care, however, could be very costly. Neither Harris nor her campaign provided details about the proposal, but the vice president said it would be paid for by expanding Medicare drug price negotiations. A campaign official said the cost would also be covered by increasing drug discounts from manufacturers and other measures.

The proposal aims to address the long-term care needs of senior citizens and people with disabilities, helping them stay at home instead of moving to a nursing home, which can cost thousands of dollars a month. Medicare does not cover home health care except in very narrow circumstances. So most senior citizens have to pay for the services out of pocket or through Medicaid, if they are eligible.

Read more about Harris’ proposal here.

Sen. JD Vance speaks during the Vice Presidential debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, hosted by CBS News at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City on October 1.

Sen. JD Vance’s refusal to accept the legitimacy of the 2020 election at last week’s vice presidential debate culminated his years-long conversion from a Never Trump critic into a MAGA supporter.

When asked directly by Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate Gov. Tim Walz if former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden, Vance said, “Tim, I’m focused on the future.” Walz called the Ohio Republican’s response a “damning non-answer.”

Vance’s response was a departure from what he said in the weeks after the 2020 election, when, in a little-noticed interview, he indicated he believed that Trump had lost the election and accepted that Biden would be inaugurated.

Most notably, Vance never parroted Trump’s stolen election rhetoric during this time, according to a CNN KFile review of his social media activity. In fact, Vance never tweeted or liked any content related to the aftermath of the 2020 election at the time. Vance was promoting the release of the “Hillbilly Elegy” movie, based on his bestselling book.

Likes on X – formerly Twitter – are now hidden, but CNN archived a copy of Vance’s before he was picked as Trump’s running mate.

A spokesperson for Vance declined to comment.

Read more here.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday criticized Donald Trump for mismanaging the pandemic in response to new revelations from Bob Woodward’s new book that details Trump’s private conversations with Putin – and a secret shipment of Covid-19 testing equipment Trump sent to the Russian president for his personal use.

She continued, “Everybody was scrambling to get these kits, the tests, the covid test kits. Couldn’t get them, couldn’t get them anywhere. And this guy who was president of the United States is sending them to Russia to a murderous dictator for his personal use.”

Harris slammed Trump for helping an adversary amid the pandemic while Americans needed relief, adding he “mismanaged the whole thing” domestically. She also highlighted that Trump dangerously suggested sunlight and ingesting disinfectants could help cure coronavirus.

“Think about this, this person who wants to be president again, who secretly is helping out an adversary when the American people are dying by the hundreds every day and in need of relief, and instead, how did he handle it domestically for Americans? He mismanaged the whole thing,” Harris added.

Donald Trump’s campaign on Tuesday quickly seized on the moment when Vice President Kamala Harris said on ABC’s “The View” that “there is not a thing that comes to mind” when asked if she would’ve done anything differently than President Joe Biden.

“If you’re a voter who wants to turn the page from Joe Biden’s failed economy, open border, and global chaos then Kamala Harris is NOT the candidate for you,” the campaign said in a new statement.

The campaign added that “Kamala Harris has no regrets for supporting inflationary spending, open borders, and weakness abroad.”

On “The View,” Harris was asked, “If anything, would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?”

Trump ally, GOP Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, responded to the moment and posted on X, “A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for four more years of Biden’s policies on inflation, the border, and national security–only with even less competent leadership.”

Meanwhile, Trump claimed Tuesday that Harris “sounds like a child,” in response to her interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that the former president said he watched as he continued to insult the vice president’s intelligence.

Trump backed out of a previously scheduled interview with “60 Minutes,” CBS said last week.

Trump has levied a number of personal attacks on Harris since she ascended as the Democratic nominee for president and recently claimed Harris was “mentally impaired.”

This post has been updated with Trump’s reaction to Harris’ interview.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday dismissed criticism from GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has sought to accuse her of politicizing the storm, and instead said now is the time to “work together to combine resources” amid hurricane relief efforts.

CNN previously reported that the Florida governor has refused to return Harris’ phone call after she reached out about storm recovery, which Harris called “irresponsible” and “selfish.”

“People are in desperate need of support right now, and playing political games at this moment, in these crisis situations – these are the height of emergency situations – is just utterly irresponsible, and it is selfish, and it is about political gamesmanship instead of doing the job that you took an oath to do, which is putting the people first,” Harris told reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews on Monday.

DeSantis hit back at the vice president’s remarks during a Fox interview, calling her “delusional.”

“For Kamala Harris to try to say my sole focus (being) on the people of Florida is somehow selfish is delusional,” DeSantis said. “She has no role in this, in fact, she’s been vice president for three and a half years, I’ve dealt with a number of storms under this administration, she’s never contributed anything to any of these efforts.”

Civil rights groups sued Georgia on Monday in an effort to extend the state’s voter registration deadline by a week to account for residents who may not have been able to register in the wake of Hurricane Helene, which wreaked havoc in the state leading up to the deadline.

The lawsuit filed in federal court by a coalition of civil rights groups argues that Hurricane Helene made landfall just days before the start of a critical week-long stretch before the October 7 deadline, when registration in the state typically spikes, disrupting that final batch of registrations.

The group’s attorneys claim that the “massive and widespread disruptions and devastation” caused by Helene in the state “likely prevented tens of thousands of Georgia residents from timely registering to vote because they lacked internet access, could not travel, lacked access to postal services, or had no operational county election office.”

They are seeking to extend the deadline until next Monday.

CNN has reached out to Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s office for comment on the lawsuit.

Voting rights advocates have similarly tried to get Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis to extend that state’s deadline, which passed on Monday, citing Helene and the approaching Hurricane Milton, which is expected to hit the Tampa Bay area in the next day or two.

Advertising for the presidential race dominated the first week of October, as Democrats outspent Republicans by $88.9 million to $51.3 million, for a total of more than $140 million worth of ads blitzing voters over just seven days.

Meanwhile, several down ballot races that could be pivotal in the fight for control of Congress also saw a continued flood of ad money, and the top targets show how each party is strategizing and managing resources entering the final four-week sprint.

Here’s a quick look at some of those top contests:

Top Senate races

The Senate race in Ohio saw the most ad spending apart from the presidential race, a total of just over $39 million in the first week of October, and Republicans outspent Democrats by about $21.3 million to $17.7 million there.

The Pennsylvania Senate race ranked 3rd for ad spending in the first week of October (2nd, excluding the presidential race), and the parties ran about even on Keystone State airwaves, Republicans spending about $10.1 million, Democrats spending about $9.9 million in that stretch.

Another critical Senate race in Montana ranked 4th in total ad spending for the week (3rd excluding the presidential), as Democrats are defending Sen. Jon Tester against stiff political headwinds in the typically red state. The contest saw $18.2 million worth of advertising in the first week of the month, and Democrats narrowly outspent Republicans, $9.5 million to $8.7 million.

Four other key Senate races also saw more than $10 million worth of ad spending in the first week of October – races in Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona.

Top House races

Two toss-up House races saw more than $4 million worth of ad spending in the first week of October – in Michigan’s 7th congressional district, a perennial battleground where the parties are battling to replace Democratic Rep. Elissa Slotkin, who is running for Senate; and in Arizona’s first congressional district, covering large parts of the Phoenix metro, where Republicans are defending Rep. David Schweikert after his extremely narrow 2022 win.

Nine other highly competitive House races saw more than $3 million worth of ad spending in the opening week of the final month, including a bucket of races in California – CA-22, CA-27, and CA013 – with one, CA-27, where Republicans outspent Democrats by about $1.4 million. And in another key California House race, CA-45, Republicans also dramatically outspent Democrats, by more than $2 million out of about $2.5 million total.

In addition, a quartet of important New York House races also ranked among the contests seeing the most ad spending in the first week of October.

Banners hang outside of CNN’s Atlanta headquarters ahead of a CNN Presidential Debate on Monday, June 24.

The window for a final presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is closing.

CNN has publicly offered to host a debate in Atlanta on October 23. Harris has accepted the invitation and welcomed the chance to debate Trump again, but Trump has rejected her calls.

On Tuesday, CNN stepped up the pressure by writing to both campaigns and setting a Thursday deadline for a formal response. Debates, after all, can’t be produced overnight; the events take time to organize.

“With less than 30 days to Election Day, we are placing a deadline for a formal response from both campaigns for this Thursday, October 10 at 12 p.m. ET to participate,” the network said.

What both campaigns have said: The Harris campaign quickly accepted the second debate invitation, adding that “Trump should have no problem agreeing” since “it is the same format and setup as the CNN debate he attended and said he won in June, when he praised CNN’s moderators, rules, and ratings.”

But Trump shunned the offer, claiming it was “too late” for a second debate. (In fact, the CNN date is in line with final debates of other recent election cycles.)

Last week, the Harris campaign said “she will be in Atlanta on October 23,” so “Donald Trump should step up and face the voters.” But Trump responded on Truth Social, “I beat Biden, I then beat her, and I’m not looking to do it again, too far down the line.”

Vice President Kamala Harris appears on The View on Tuesday, October 8.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday said there will be one major difference between President Joe Biden’s administration and her own if she is elected president: she vows to have a Republican in her Cabinet.

Harris earlier told the hosts of “The View” that there was nothing she would have done differently than Biden had she held his office over the last four years.

She added: “I’m going to have a Republican in my Cabinet because I don’t feel burdened by letting pride get in the way of a good idea.”

In previous administrations, it was not uncommon for presidents to select members of the opposite party for Cabinet positions; former President Barack Obama had four Republicans in his Cabinet.

Former President Donald Trump and Biden have not followed that tradition, however.

Vice President Kamala Harris said she fears former President Donald Trump “lacks empathy” when asked about the misinformation he’s been spreading about the federal response to Hurricane Helene.

Harris on “The View” on Tuesday called the false rumors said by Trump “the height of irresponsibility, and frankly callousness.”

“Lives are literally at stake right now,” the vice president said.

“People are losing their homes with no hope of ever being able to reconstruct or return. And the idea that somebody would be playing political games for the sake of himself — but this is so consistent about Donald Trump. He puts himself before the need of others,” she said.

“I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level — to care about the suffering of other people and then understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it’s to lift people up — especially in a time of crisis,” Harris said.

Harris described traveling to both Georgia and North Carolina to survey the impact of the hurricane, emphasizing the “pain” and “shock” people are still in.

More context: Following Hurricane Helene, and with Hurricane Milton barreling toward Florida, Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed, without evidence, that the White House is diverting disaster relief aid to unrelated migrant programs.

While FEMA does manage grants for shelters housing and helping migrants, that is a separate account and unrelated to the disaster relief funds.

CNN’s Ebony Davis contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated with more of Harris’ remarks in the interview.

United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts speaks on July 1 in Washington, DC.

From the moment he was confirmed in 2005, Chief Justice John Roberts made it his mission to differentiate the Supreme Court from the political branches. Yet, the court is ensnared in politics perhaps more than ever – and by the chief’s own hand.

The former star appellate lawyer who allies once cast as the smartest person in the room remains confounded by the realities of Donald Trump.

Roberts was shaken by the adverse public reaction to his decision affording Trump substantial immunity from criminal prosecution. His protestations that the case concerned the presidency, not Trump, held little currency.

Unlike most of the justices, he made no public speeches over the summer. Colleagues and friends who saw him said he looked especially weary, as if carrying greater weight on his shoulders. On Monday, after he ascended the bench to formally open a new session, Roberts hewed to a familiar script and kept any emotion in check.

This is a fraught time for America’s highest court, as divisive rulings mount and controversy persists over the justices’ lack of an enforceable ethics code.

Roberts, who will turn 70 in January, faces a new slate of major cases to be heard in the coming months, including disputes over transgender rights, gun control, the death penalty and a possible return of Trump litigation. But perhaps the more significant immediate test of Roberts’ leadership will be litigation around the November 5 presidential election and the counting of votes.

Read the full analysis.

Vice President Kamala Harris said she would not have done anything differently than President Joe Biden had she held his office.

“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” Harris said when asked whether there was anything she would have done differently than Biden over the past four years.

“I’ve been a part of most of the decisions that have had an impact,” Harris told the anchors of “The View” on Tuesday.

Harris said one of the first calls she made after learning Biden had dropped from the 2024 race in July was her pastor.

“I needed to talk to God, you know, and to pray,” Harris said.

The interview is one of several Harris is doing in New York City today as she continues her media blitz. Yesterday, CBS aired Harris’ interview on “60 Minutes.”

A Supervisor and Elections office staff member runs sample voting ballots through voting machines during a test run at the Supervisor of Elections Office in Tampa, Florida, on October 3.

Hurricane Helene disrupted elections infrastructure and postal service in several states, with less than one month to go until Election Day. It comes as Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall in Florida later this week.

CNN previously reported that in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which had a devastating impact on parts of Florida, Georgia and North Carolina, election officials in those places have begun to work quickly to ensure voters can still securely cast early ballots.

Here’s how some states are preparing:

North Carolina’s election board unanimously passed a resolution Monday to grant the counties most affected by Hurricane Helene the ability to add or remove early voting sites and adjust the schedules for those sites. It also permits displaced voters to drop off absentee ballots at other county boards of election where they have relocated and further empowers “multipartisan assistance teams” to help voters with absentee ballots, among other measures, according to the election board’s general counsel Paul Cox.

Still, Karen Bell, the executive director of the elections board, said all county offices are open in North Carolina. Bell said the state remains committed to open early voting on October 17, as planned.

Officials in Buncombe County, North Carolina, in the Asheville area that was devastated by the storm, also reaffirmed that they are prepared to move forward with voting in the 2024 election.

CNN’s Paula Reid showed how Wake County, North Carolina, is counting absentee and mail-in ballots:

Florida is not planning to extend its voter registration deadline, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday, rejecting calls from voting rights groups to provide more time to residents in the storm-battered state.

Voting rights groups have for days been calling for the governor to extend Monday’s deadline until October 15. A letter sent by more than two dozen organizations to DeSantis last week with that demand was sent again to him Monday, according to the League of Women Voters of Florida, one of the groups behind the push.

Visit CNN’s voter handbook to see how to vote in your area.

This year’s spending to elect a president and members of Congress will hit at least $15.9 billion – putting 2024 on track to become the nation’s most expensive federal election, according to a new analysis from OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics.

Helping to drive up the price tag: blistering spending by outside groups, including deep-pocketed super PACs aiding Republicans. Outside spending – largely through independent expenditures such as advertising, mailings, canvassing and other activities to boost specific candidates – has reached roughly $2.6 billion. That’s nearly $1 billion more than groups like these spent at this point in the 2020 election, the analysis found.

The top five megadonors to outside groups this cycle all support Republicans, led by Timothy Mellon, an heir to the Mellon banking fortune who has donated $125 million to a super PAC working to elect former President Donald Trump. That’s helped drive a major fundraising advantage to the conservative outside groups active in this election.

The super PAC aiding Trump’s presidential campaign, Make America Great Again, Inc., leads the outside spending, plowing more than $239 million into its efforts to elect the former president. Future Forward, the primary super PAC supporting Vice President Kamala Harris – and President Joe Biden before she became the Democratic presidential nominee – has spent more than $212 million.

Donald Trump is expected to hold a campaign rally on Friday in Aurora, Colorado. The former president has repeatedly mentioned Aurora in remarks around immigration and claimed without evidence that the notorious Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua has been running amok in the city and terrorizing a handful of apartment buildings.

During the presidential debate last month, Trump name-checked the city: “Look at Aurora, in Colorado. They are taking over the towns. They’re taking over buildings. They’re going in violently,” pointing to the city as a harbinger of what unchecked migration could bring to towns across America.

Aurora police say gang influence is “isolated,” and the city of Aurora has countered that the real problem has been abusive housing conditions. Residents living in one of the buildings in question told CNN they were unaware of organized crime taking over.

CNN’s Caitlin Stephen Hu, Rafael Romo and Belisa Morillo contributed to this report.

Donald Trump is deploying his quintessential political move in a vicious election end game.

In a fact-bending blast of disinformation, the former president is charging Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden’s White House of the very transgressions of which he stands accused.

Following Hurricane Helene, and with another storm on the way, Trump is falsely claiming the White House is diverting disaster relief aid to unrelated migrant programs. This is false, but Trump, while president, did repurpose FEMA funds to help finance his hardline immigration policies.

The Republican nominee often insists that his legal troubles are proof of Democratic election interference. But he’s the one who tried to subvert the will of voters in 2020 in the most flagrant attempt to overturn an election in American history.

Read the full analysis.

Vice President Harris identified Iran as the greatest adversary of the United States in a portion of her “60 Minutes” interview that did not air on the full broadcast Monday.

“Iran has American blood on their hands,” she went on. “This attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles, what we need to do to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power, that is one of my highest priorities.”

She would not specify whether she would order preemptive action to take out an Iranian nuclear site if presented proof Tehran was building a nuclear weapon.

“I’m not going to talk about hypotheticals at this moment,” she said.

She similarly declined to say whether the US would use military force to protect Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.

“I’m not going to get into hypotheticals,” Harris said. “But listen, we need to make sure that we maintain a ‘One China’ policy, but that includes supporting Taiwan’s ability to defend itself, including what we need to do to ensure the freedom of the Taiwan Strait.”

Her answer is in line with the longtime US policy of “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan, though President Joe Biden has at various moments been more explicit in saying the US would defend the self-governing island if attacked by Beijing.

“We need to make sure we have open lines of communication with China, particularly military to military,” Harris said in the interview.

Absentee ballots are prepared to be mailed at the Wake County Board of Elections on September 17, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

After mail-in and absentee voting reached new levels in the 2020 election during the Covid-19 pandemic, a wave of lawsuits over the popular vote-casting methods this year is laying the groundwork for potential challenges to the outcome of the November presidential election.

Key swing states like North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Michigan are still experiencing a high volume of mail-in and absentee voting. That has prompted multiple lawsuits in battleground states where Republicans are suing to challenge everything from whether mail-in ballot envelopes are properly sealed to whether they are postmarked correctly.

Democrats, for their part, have embraced mail-in and absentee balloting, and are waging their own legal fights to ensure these votes are counted. Democrats championed access to this type of voting in 2020 to ease concerns of citizens who felt unsafe going to polling sites in-person during the pandemic, and it’s still a major focus of their get-out-the-vote efforts.

Republicans, on the other hand, have been more skeptical. Former President Donald Trump has given mixed signals on the campaign trail. After his 2020 loss, he has railed against mail-in voting, saying this summer it “isn’t working, it’s corrupt.” But he also emphasizes that every vote matters, including early voting and absentee ballots.

With absentee and mail-in voting already underway in several states, and the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as close as ever, the outcome of litigation over these ballots could help decide the election.

Read the full story.

The race for the presidency remains tight in a new CNN Poll of Polls average of national polling.

Overall, 49% support Vice President Kamala Harris and 47% favor former President Donald Trump, according to the new average, suggesting no clear leader in the matchup.

The new average incorporates a new New York Times/Siena College poll that suggests Harris holds a narrow lead over Trump among likely voters, 47% Harris to 44% Trump when named third-party candidates are included in the question, and 49% Harris to 46% Trump in that poll without other candidates named.

Vice President Kamala Harris will appear today on “The View,” where she plans to propose the first-ever Medicare home health care benefits, as she seeks to appeal to Americans caring for both children and aging parents, according to a senior campaign official.

Harris, who has promised on the trail to improve long-term care, will focus on assisting the nearly one-quarter of American adults who are in the “sandwich generation,” which contains many remaining undecided voters, according to campaign data. More than 105 million Americans are acting as caregivers.

The proposal aims to address the care needs of senior citizens, though the campaign official did not provide any details other than to say it would be paid for by expanding Medicare drug price negotiations, increasing drug discounts from manufacturers and other measures.

Some context: Long-term care and home health care are very costly, and Medicare currently does not cover them except in very narrow circumstances. So most senior citizens have to pay for the services out of pocket or through Medicaid, if they are eligible.

Later today, the vice president will appear on “The Howard Stern Show” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” Earlier this week, she participated in the “Call Her Daddy Podcast” and 60 Minutes, while Walz sat down for “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and Fox News Sunday.

Biden waves from the stage on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday, August 19, in Chicago.

First lady Dr. Jill Biden is preparing to step into a new role as a campaign surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris, kicking off a five-state, five-day swing through battleground states later this week, a source familiar with the plans told CNN.

The campaign push beginning Friday will take the first lady out west to Arizona and Nevada and through the “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The Harris team is deploying the first lady to smaller, targeted markets to court undecided voters and to city suburbs as they look to mobilize women voters with less than a month until the election, the source said.

The first lady, a fierce supporter and defender of President Joe Biden’s campaign for a second term up until his decision to withdraw on July 21, has largely stayed out of the political fray since that moment. She introduced her husband at the Democratic National Convention in August and expressed her support for Harris, who her late son Beau Biden worked with as a state attorney general.

Her deployments on behalf of Harris are similar to how she was utilized during her husband’s campaign and for Democrats in the 2022 midterms. Harris’ campaign believes there is a fair amount of undecided voters in areas like Yuma, Carson City and Reno that the first lady can try to reach.

She’s also expected to appeal to suburban women on issues like lowering household costs, reproductive rights and education, a personal passion of the first lady.

Read more about the first lady’s campaign swing.

Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Doral golf club in Miami, on October 7.

It is a busy day on the campaign trail as the 2024 candidates continue to make their pitches to voters with less than a month until Election Day.

Former President Donald Trump will appear before a virtual town hall about health care and chronic disease later tonight at 8 p.m. ET.

At the town hall, he will be joined by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, along with several doctors. The event is focused on “America’s health crisis and how we can solve the chronic disease epidemic,” according to a posting of the event on Gabbard’s website.

Vice President Kamala Harris will participate in media interviews in New York all day. At 11 a.m. ET, the vice president will participate in a live interview on ABC’s “The View,” and at 1 p.m. ET, she will be interviewed by Howard Stern on his SiriusXM show. Harris will then record an interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” which will air in the evening. Yesterday, CBS aired Harris’ “60 Minutes” interview. Read takeaways from it here.

The running mates are also on the campaign trail on Tuesday. Democrat Tim Walz will be in Seattle, Washington, before speaking at a fundraiser in Sacramento, California. Walz will then travel to Nevada and deliver remarks in Reno.

Republican JD Vance is expected to hold a rally in Detroit, Michigan. Vance will then travel to Denver, Colorado, and participate in a closed-press evening fundraiser.

Both running mates will then head to Arizona and stay there overnight.

Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign launched a new ad on Tuesday touting the support she’s received from Republicans and former Trump administration officials, including highlights from the Harris campaign’s recent event with former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney.

The ad — which began airing this morning in North Carolina — opens with a clip of news coverage of Republicans endorsing Harris and includes a clip of Ret. Gen. Stanley McChrystal praising the vice president, saying, “She has the kind of character that’s gonna be necessary in the presidency.”

The ad’s narrator takes over, touting Harris’ support with “former generals, secretaries of defense, secretaries of the Army Navy and Air Force, CIA directors, and National Security Council leaders under Democratic and Republican presidents, Republican members of Congress and even former Trump administration officials.”

It’s part of a concerted push by the Harris campaign to try to attract Republican voters that includes the new ad, the event with Cheney last week, an event in Pennsylvania set for this week with several former Trump administration officials, and previous campaign ads that have featured clips of former administration members criticizing former President Donald Trump.

Trump allies are calling for the federal government to punish Deloitte after an employee at the consulting firm apparently shared his private messages with JD Vance.

The attacks on Deloitte are just the latest example of major American companies getting targeted by former President Donald Trump or those in his orbit.

Deloitte started to feel the wrath of Trump world immediately after The Washington Post published an explosive story on September 27 that revealed Vance said in a private 2020 message that Trump “thoroughly failed to deliver” his economic agenda. The Post did not reveal who corresponded with Vance, now Trump’s running mate, and leaked those communications.

Donald Trump Jr., the former president’s eldest son and a surrogate for the campaign, swiftly responded on social media that same day by revealing what he said was the identity and picture of that Deloitte employee and suggesting his employer pay the price.

“Maybe it’s time for the GOP to end Deloitte’s taxpayer funded gravy train?” Trump Jr. wrote on X, noting that Deloitte receives billions of dollars in government contracts. His post was retweeted by a Vance spokesperson and amplified by Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller.

Trump Jr. told CNN he was speaking his mind as a private citizen.

Some background: Deloitte received about $3 billion from the US federal government in fiscal 2024, according to federal data. That includes nine-figure amounts from major agencies such as the Department of Defense, the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Homeland Security.

Read the full story.

Vice President Kamala Harris appears in an interview on “60 Minutes” that aired Monday, October 7.

Vice President Kamala Harris faced tough questions about how she’d pay for her economic plans, whether Democrats were too slow to enact border security measures, how she’d confront Russia over its war in Ukraine and more in a wide-ranging “60 Minutes” interview that aired Monday.

The Democratic presidential nominee’s sit-down with CBS comes amid a media blitz that is putting Harris in front of friendlier interviewers with more targeted audiences. Her interview on the popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast went live Sunday. On Tuesday she’ll visit ABC’s “The View,” sit down with Howard Stern and appear on CBS’ “The Late Show” with Stephen Colbert.

Here are five takeaways from Harris’ sit-down with “60 Minutes”:

Immigration: Harris maintained migration is a “long-standing problem” when asked about the Biden administration’s approach to immigration policies and refused to answer whether officials should’ve cracked down sooner.

Ukraine: Harris said she would not meet bilaterally with Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a solution to end the war in Ukraine, saying, “Ukraine must have a say in the future of Ukraine.”

Cheney: The interview at one point featured the vice president in Ripon, Wisconsin — claimed to be the birthplace of the Republican Party — with former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, who endorsed Harris and spoke at a rally in the key swing state last week.

Walz: Harris’ running mate was also featured in the interview. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who has faced questions about past statements, said Harris told him to be more careful with his words.

Trump: Harris criticized Donald Trump for backing out of his “60 Minutes” interview. The former president’s campaign backed out after scheduling a sit-down at his Mar-a-Lago estate, CBS correspondent Scott Pelley said at the start of the nation’s most-watched newsmagazine’s broadcast.

Read more about the interview here.

Bruce Springsteen at the Roy Thomson theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on September 8.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told reporters traveling with him on a trip along the West Coast that his dream dinner guest would be Bruce Springsteen.

Reporters travelling on Walz’s plane during a swing that will see the Democratic vice-presidential candidate in California, Washington, Nevada and Arizona participated in the time-honored campaign tradition of writing a question on an orange and rolling it to the front of the plane for the candidate to answer. Reporters wrote asking who Walz’s dream dinner guest would be and attempted to roll an orange to the front of the plane on Sunday, according to pool reports.

Reporters traveling with Walz confirmed he was aware of the question written on the orange but did not receive a response on Sunday.

On Monday evening, a campaign official returned the orange to reporters with “Bruce Springsteen” written in response, according to pool reports.

In an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Monday, Walz discussed his love of Springsteen’s music following the musician’s endorsement of his and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.

“This is– a high school kid, and– got The River,” he said, referring to Springsteen’s fifth studio album. “Changed my life, it was a religious experience.”

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz talks to Jimmy Kimmel on Monday.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz joked about having “a problem about not being specific with my language” during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Monday.

Walz and Kimmel discussed the moment when Walz asked Vance during the debate about the 2020 election and Vance declined to directly answer, which Kimmel joked could have been motivated by seeing former Vice President Mike Pence pushed aside after resisting Trump’s efforts to overthrow the results of the 2020 election.

Walz then said he’s looking forward to defeating Trump while making a comment that appeared to confuse Kimmel to some extent.

“Look, we get to turn the page on that and– and I plan on waking up on November 6th with Madam President,” Walz said, prompting cheers from the studio audience.

“I want to be clear, you won’t be waking up together,” Kimmel replied. “Unless you guys have gotten closer than we thought.”

“I have a problem about not being specific with my language, so thank you for that,” Walz said, again prompting laughs from Kimmel and the crowd.

Some context: The exchange comes the same day Walz said in an interview with “60 Minutes” released Monday that Vice President Kamala Harris told him to “be a little more careful” with how he speaks when asked about disagreements between the two of them.

Since joining the campaign, Walz has faced scrutiny for misleading statements about his military rank when he retired from the National Guard, falsely saying he carried assault weapons “in war,” wrongly suggesting his children were conceived through in vitro fertilization, and saying repeatedly he was in China during the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square – a false claim he repeated during last week’s vice-presidential debate.

Walz in the interview reiterated his calls for stronger gun restrictions nationally to prevent school shootings, while calling the proposal from some Republicans to arm teachers a “very, very bad idea.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump marked the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel on Monday, which gave way to a year of war in the Middle East that has shaped the 2024 campaign.

The escalating violence in the Middle East has been one of the thorniest issues for Harris as she’s taken over the Democratic ticket this year. Arab American advocates and leaders have pushed for the vice president to distance herself from President Joe Biden’s Israel policy, including during a meeting in Michigan on Friday.

Here’s a recap: