No one is likely to be happy with the projected higher deficits laid out in a new analysis of Kamala Harris’ and Donald Trump’s economic plans.
The analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget suggests a Harris presidency could increase the national debt over 10 years by $3.5 trillion. The same analysis says former President Trump’s ideas could heap another $7.5 trillion onto the debt and possibly as much as $15.2 trillion.
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Here’s the latest:
Harris team reaches agreement on rules for transition ahead of Trump
Vice President Kamala Harris’ transition team has reached an agreement with the Biden administration on rules for accessing government offices and records should she win the November presidential election.
Former President Donald Trump’s team has yet to reach a similar agreement, according to an administration official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss transition planning.
Congress called for the agreements to be reached by Oct. 1 of a presidential election year to enable all major party nominees to be prepared to assume the presidency on Inauguration Day.
It’s the latest transition planning milestone that Trump is behind on. The former president has also yet to reach an agreement to utilize General Services Administration support and official space, like the Harris team has, which Congress in the Presidential Transition Act, had wanted met by Sept. 1.
— By Zeke Miller
Vance headlines rally to commemorate anniversary of Oct. 7 attack
Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance headlined a 1,500-strong rally Monday to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“This terrible assault on the Jewish people must never be allowed to happen again,” Vance, an Ohio senator, told the crowds gathered near the Washington Monument. “Every single American of common sense and principle must reject it.”
The event took place under a massive security deployment due to both Vance’s presence and fear of attack.
Tall fencing draped with black fabric ringed a vast swath of lawn across the street from the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Multiple law enforcement agencies, including Secret Service and Park Police, on horseback, locked down the area.
Attendees said they came to send a message of solidarity with Israel.
“I think that Jews in America often feel like they have to apologize or feel bashful about their identity,” said Miriam Regev, who came from New York City to attend.
Regev said she wasn’t a Republican but was impressed by Vance’s words. She holds “serious concerns” about former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump, but added “there’s no doubt in my mind that a Trump-Vance administration would be much more strongly pro-Israel.”
Tim Walz visits memorial to victims of Hamas attack on Nova Festival
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz visited an exhibition dedicated to some of the victims of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
Walz, the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, attended the exhibition in Culver City, California, that was dedicated to the victims who were maimed, killed or kidnapped from the Nova music festival on that date.
Survivor Noa Beer and event producer Virginia Fout led Walz on a tour that featured original artifacts from the festival and displays that depicted the gruesomeness of the attack. Walz spent time at a Memorial Wall dedicated to those who were murdered.
Around 3,000 people were dancing in a field in Israel just miles from Gaza when heavily armed Palestinian militants rampaged through the festival, killing at least 364 people and taking more than 40 hostage. At least some are still held in Gaza.
Hurricane-hit North Carolina enacts changes to help voters cast ballots on Election Day
North Carolina’s bipartisan state elections board unanimously approved an emergency resolution making several changes to how voters in 13 western North Carolina counties can cast their ballots by Election Day.
The resolution comes less than two weeks after deadly Helene destroyed large swaths of western North Carolina, displacing residents, damaging homes and washing away roads.
In a critical presidential election that may hinge on which way the battleground state swings, that widespread disruption also presents major problems for how residents can cast their votes.
“I’m generally very hesitant to make changes to the normal running our election,” said Stacy Eggers IV, a Republican board member from Boone in western North Carolina. “But these have been tailored to give flexibility to the county boards to meet those specific needs.”
One of the biggest changes allows affected voters to turn an absentee ballot in on Election Day by 7:30 p.m. to polling places operated by their county elections board.
Displaced voters may also turn in ballots to another county’s elections board by the same deadline.
The resolution also expands opportunities to pick up an absentee ballot in-person from a county elections office until the day before the election.
Trump claims he is so popular in Israel that he could run for office there
Trump claimed in a radio interview on Monday morning that he polls so well in Israel that he could run for office.
“I could run for prime minister, although Bibi’s doing a lot better right now,” he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Speaking on WABC radio, the former president said that in the U.S., “very conservative Jews, very, very conservative, they’re all for Trump, every, 100% because I’ve done things that are — they understand it.”
“I heard I’m doing very well with New York, Jewish people from New York, I hear I’m doing well,” Trump said.
Trump appeared on the same radio program in July with host Sid Rosenberg and claimed Vice President Kamala Harris, who is married to a Jewish man, “doesn’t like Jewish people.”
He repeated his claims that the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas never would have happened if he were still president.
For US adversaries, Election Day won’t mean the end to efforts to influence Americans
Soon, the ballots will be cast, the polls will close and a campaign marked by assassination attempts, animosity and anxiety will come to an end. But for U.S. adversaries, the work to meddle with American democracy may be entering its most critical phase.
Despite all the attention on efforts to spread disinformation in the months before the Nov. 5 election, the hours and days immediately after voting ends could offer foreign adversaries like Russia, Iran and China or domestic extremist groups the best chance to mess with America’s decision.
That’s when Americans will go online to see the latest results or share their opinions as the votes are tabulated. And that’s when a fuzzy photo or AI-generated video of supposed vote tampering could do its most damage, potentially transforming online outrage into real-world action before authorities have time to investigate the facts.
It’s a threat taken seriously by intelligence analysts, elected officials and tech executives, who say that while there’s already been a steady buildup of disinformation and influence operations, the worst may be yet to come.
Many Republicans are skeptical of Turning Point’s ability to get out the vote
Turning Point’s representatives have made two things clear in meetings with state and local Republican leaders — Donald Trump has blessed their conservative organization to help lead his get-out-the-vote effort, and local party officials ought to use the group’s new voter mobilization app.
Both prospects terrify fellow Republicans.
Soaring to prominence after Trump’s unexpected 2016 win, Turning Point earned a reputation for hosting glitzy events, cultivating hard-right influencers and raising prodigious sums of money while enriching the group’s leaders. They’ve had far less success helping Republicans win, especially in their adopted home state of Arizona.
Now the organization has leveraged its ties to Trump to expand its influence in a way that could be potentially lucrative. Turning Point has sought to lead an effort to remake the GOP’s get-out-the-vote effort based on the theory that there are thousands of Trump supporters who rarely vote but could be persuaded to in this year’s election. And they are pitching their new mobile app as vital to this effort’s success.
The Associated Press
