Politics

(WASHINGTON) — There is roughly a month left to go in the 2024 presidential race, yet Donald Trump has been ramping up his rhetoric to possibly challenge the outcome.

For months, he’s accused Democrats of cheating, threatened to prosecute election workers and falsely claimed noncitizens are being allowed in the country to cast ballots.

Trump’s also now telling his supporters that if he loses in November, it will be the country’s “last election” — the latest dark comment in his increasingly bleak and dystopian campaign rhetoric.

Asked for comment on his remarks, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt told ABC News: “President Trump has always stated we need free and fair elections, or we won’t have a country.”

Here’s a closer look at what Trump has said to supporters on the trail in an apparent effort to sow doubt on the voting process.

Trump falsely accuses Democrats of cheating

“They cheat. That’s all they want to do is cheat. And when you see this, it’s the only way they’re gonna win,” Trump said at a rally in Wisconsin on Oct. 6. “And we can’t let that happen and we can’t let it happen again. We’re going to have no country.”

Trump’s claims that Democrats cheated in the previous election or are doing so in this race are baseless.

Trump’s allegations of fraud in the 2020 election were debunked by his own administration officials, legal challenges failed in the courts and recounts or audits conducted in narrowly-decided swing states all affirmed President Joe Biden’s victory.

In this same vein, he’s also accused Democrats of staging “coup” when Biden dropped out and Harris succeeded him. Harris received 99% of the delegate votes in the Democratic National Committee’s virtual roll call vote after Biden exited the race.

Top officials in key battleground states have said they are confident in the integrity of this election. Many have testified on Capitol Hill or at conferences on the steps they’ve taken to boost voter confidence and make the process more transparent.

The Pennsylvania Department of State, noting it conducts two audits after every election, told ABC News it was “confident in the integrity of county officials and election administrators across the Commonwealth, despite irresponsible statements that are not based in fact or supported by evidence.”

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recently reiterated that the state’s elections are “secure.” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said “every valid vote will count, the election will be secure, the results will be accurate. Just like in 2020.”

Trump threatens to prosecute election workers if elected

In a post on his conservative social media site last month, Trump said if he is back in the White House, he will prosecute anyone he deems was involved in “unscrupulous behavior” in the 2024 election.

“It was a Disgrace to our Nation!” he wrote of the 2020 election. “Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again.”

The prosecutions, he said, would extend to lawyers, donors, political operatives and election officials.

Election officials and experts told ABC News that Trump’s comments were “dangerous” given the heightened threat environment for election administrators and poll workers.

Trump falsely claims illegal immigrants are voting en masse

“Our elections are bad,” Trump said during the ABC News presidential debate on Sept. 10. “And a lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote. They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in practically. And these people are trying to get them to vote. And that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.”

Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already illegal, and recorded instances of undocumented immigrants casting ballots are incredibly rare, according to officials and studies.

The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, has recorded about two-dozen instances where noncitizens were penalized for voting between 2003 and 2023. Over that period of time, the foundation found just 1,500 proven instances of overall voter fraud despite billions of votes being cast.

The Brennan Center, following the 2016 general election, also found noncitizen voting to be virtually nonexistent. The center reported that election officials who oversaw the tabulation of 23.5 million votes across 42 jurisdictions referred only an estimated 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting for further investigation or prosecution — or 0.0001%.

Trump’s mixed messaging on mail-in ballots

Trump’s messaging on mail-in voting has been incredibly mixed. At times, he’s encouraged his supporters to vote by that method and in any other way possible — and voted himself by mail in 2020. Other times, however, he’s pushed a narrative that mail-in ballots are “corrupt” or not as secure.

“The elections are so screwed up. We have to get back in and we have to change it all,” Trump falsely said during a rally in Pennsylvania this past summer. “We want to go to paper ballots. We want to go to same-day voting. We want to go to citizenship papers. And we want to go to voter ID. It’s very simple. We want to get rid of mail-in voting.”

There are a number of safeguards in place to protect the voting process, including mail-in voting, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The agency has set out to combat misinformation about elections on its website.

Trump’s also targeted the U.S. Postal Service, claiming the agency may not be prepared for the election — which prompted significant pushback from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who flatly said such comments are “wrong.”

More recently, Trump amplified false claims that a significant percentage of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania (considered a key state for both campaigns) were “fraudulent.” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro pushed back that mail ballots hadn’t been sent out yet when Trump made that claim and that the state conducts two audits after each election to ensure results are legitimate.

Trump still won’t accept he lost 2020 election

Trump continues to claim that the 2020 was stolen from him. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, the top Republican on Capitol Hill, have also recently declined to say Trump lost that election.

“We won, we won, we did win,” Trump falsely told rallygoers in Michigan on Oct. 3. “It was a rigged election.”

President Biden recently stressed he believed the election would be “free and fair” but voiced worry it would not be “peaceful.” The concern, he said, came from Trump and Vance’s recent comments.

“They haven’t even accepted the outcome of the last election. So, I am concerned about what they’re going to do,” Biden said on Oct. 4.

At times, Trump and members of his campaign have said he will accept the 2024 results so long as it is a free and fair election.

“If it’s a fair and legal and good election, absolutely,” he said during the CNN presidential debate, declining to outrightly say he would accept the outcome.

That didn’t stop him, however, from challenging the 2020 election results despite no evidence of widespread fraud or wrongdoing.

ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Vice President Kamala Harris went after Donald Trump for his false claims about FEMA in the wake of devastating storms in the Southeast during an appearance on ABC’s “The View” on Tuesday.

“It’s profound and it is the height of irresponsibility and, frankly, callousness,” Harris said of Trump’s claims. “Lives are literally at stake right now.”

Harris described personal stories she heard from those affected by Hurricane Helene and its aftermath after traveling to Georgia and North Carolina.

“People are losing their home 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,” she said. “He puts himself before the needs of others. I fear that he really lacks empathy on a very basic level to care about suffering of other people and understand the role of a leader is not to beat people down, it’s to lift people up.”

Harris’ sit-down on “The View” marked her first live interview since becoming the Democratic nominee. She is ramping up her media appearances this week with now just one month until Election Day.

Harris was also asked about a comment from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis accusing Harris of only getting involved in storm response out of political motivation.

“She has no role in this,” DeSantis said on Monday. “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 has never contributed anything to any of these efforts, and so what I think is selfish is trying to blunder into this.”

ABC News reported DeSantis declined to take a call with Harris in the last several days, though DeSantis later said he was unaware of the attempted outreach.

“I have called and talked within the course of this crisis, this most recent crisis, Democrat and Republican governors — called, taken the call, answered the call, had a conversation,” Harris said. “So, obviously this is not an issue that is about partisanship or politics for certain leaders but maybe is for others.”

Harris then turned to Hurricane Milton and urged any Floridians tuning in to the show to heed to calls to evacuate. The storm is expected to make landfall on Wednesday evening as possibly a Category 4 hurricane.

“This one is going to be different, and that’s why I called the governor about what Florida has received in terms of impact,” she said.

President Biden, after being briefed on Hurricane Milton on Tuesday, was asked if Harris had been helpful in preparing for the storm. Biden nodded his head and said “yes.”

Biden also criticized those spreading misinformation about FEMA in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, calling it “un-American.”

“It puts people in certain things where they panic. Where they really, really, really worry,” Biden said. “They think we’re not being taken care of. And it really is — that’s going to sound, I’m gonna use an old phrase, it’s un-American. It really is. People are scared to death.”

Biden said he was able to speak with all the governors of states that will be affected by Hurricane Milton, including a call with DeSantis last night. Biden said DeSantis has been “cooperative” and that the Florida governor said he’s received everything he needs.

“I made clear they should reach out, including to me directly, with everything else they may need as they see this storm hit,” Biden said. “I gave them my personal number to contact me here in the White House.”

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump has been spreading false claims about the Biden-Harris administration’s response to Hurricane Helene, including the baseless claim that the administration is using Federal Emergency Management Agency money to house illegal migrants. Some of Trump’s allies, including Elon Musk, have been amplifying those claims.

Those claims are not true. But ironically, Trump attempted something similar to what he falsely claims the Biden/Harris administration is doing when he was president.

Back in 2019, Trump used money from FEMA’s disaster fund for migrant programs at the southern border. In August 2019, the Trump administration told Congress it intended to shift $271 million in funding from DHS — including $155 million from FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund — to pay for detaining and transporting undocumented immigrants and temporary hearing locations for asylum-seekers.

According to a FEMA monthly report, $38 million was given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August of that year.

At the time, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called it “backwards and cruel” to divert FEMA money at the start of hurricane season.

“Congress appropriated these funds to meet the American people’s priorities and I strongly oppose this effort to undermine our constitutional authority,” Schumer said at the time.

The White House has been hitting back at the misinformation, stressing that funding for migrant services is run through a separate spigot at Customs and Border Patrol and is not related to FEMA’s disaster recovery efforts. FEMA has also created a fact-checking page on its website.

As for the Harris campaign, they’re letting the Biden administration take the lead on combating misinformation, while amplifying the official response.

But the vice president called Trump out Monday afternoon for pushing falsehoods.

“There’s a lot of mis- and disinformation being pushed out there by the former president about what is available, in particular, to the survivors of Helene,” Harris said. “And, first of all, it’s extraordinarily irresponsible. It’s about him. It’s not about you.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Election officials in Georgia and North Carolina said Monday that voting from their states in the presidential election in November will not be derailed by the damage left by Hurricane Helene even as crews continue to search for victims.

Though parts of the two states were devastated by the hurricane, election officials said they are working on plans to assure that every ballot cast for the Nov. 5 election will be counted.

“What has been on everyone’s mind is what will happen to elections,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said at a news conference Monday. “Good news: Absentee ballots are going out this week as scheduled, and early voting will start next Tuesday, on Oct. 15.”

Raffensperger said that while Helene caused widespread damage and power outages in his state, he does not expect there to be any major disruptions to the general election. He said election offices and voting equipment in the state’s 159 counties escaped serious damage.

Blake Evans, elections director for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said county officials are assessing about 2,400 polling locations. So far, just three will have to be changed because of storm damage, he added.

In North Carolina, the state’s Board of Elections unanimously approved on Monday a measure that would broaden the authority of local election officials in the counties most impacted by the disaster.

The approved measure will allow election officials in 13 of the hardest-hit North Carolina counties to make changes to voting sites, access emergency supplies and deploy teams to assist with absentee voting at disaster shelters ahead of early voting commencing on Oct. 17.

“We are committed to ensuring that we open early voting on the 17th in all 100 counties, including these affected counties. It may look a little different in these affected counties, but we fully intend to offer early voting starting on the 17th,” said Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina Board of Elections.

As of Monday, every county election office in North Carolina was opened, according to Bell, compared to last week when 14 of those offices were closed due to the storm. Bell thanked local election officials throughout the state for working to get their offices online while facing “personal struggles” including damage to their homes, transportation issues and a lack of basic utilities.

“What a difference a week makes … this is just quite the feat,” Bell said. “Our struggles are not over, and that is why we need the Board to take action to give the flexibility necessary to carry out these elections, and to be of the best service to the voters that we can be.”

She told reporters Monday that authorities could bring in National Guard tents or FEMA trailers to act as polling locations, and she insisted that it can be done securely and safely.

“It’s not as spacious as your normal polling location, but it does provide the space necessary at the existing voting site if the parking lot [of a polling site is] still accessible,” she said. “[And] even in a temporary structure we can still maintain security of the voting equipment and safety of our workers.”

In Yancey County, North Carolina, Board of Elections Director Mary Beth Tipton told ABC News that officials are still assessing how many of the county’s 11 polling sites would be operational by Election Day. Most of the other polling sites are in schools and fire stations, which are currently being used as shelters and emergency relief sites, and two election stations were severely damaged by flood waters.

“There are some of them that don’t even exist anymore,” Tipton said.

One of the hardest-hit counties was Buncombe County, which sustained historic flooding. The county includes Asheville, the eleventh-largest city in the state.

As of Monday, 67,000 utility customers remained without electricity and a large part of Buncombe County was without running water due to major damage to the water system and its water treatment plant, officials said. Recovery crews continued to search massive piles of debris for 60 people who remain unaccounted for, officials said.

“I’m here to reassure our community that Buncombe County will vote,” Corinne Duncan, the director of Buncombe County Election Services, said at a news conference Monday.

Duncan said she was concerned that some polling places would have to be changed due to the lack of water or power. She said most of the election offices and voting equipment were spared by the storm, but officials are working to “strategize and modify plans” to make sure anyone who wants to vote can do so.

She said officials are trying to get in touch with polling workers for training to make sure polling stations are staffed. As of now, early voting will begin as planned in Buncombe County and residents still have until Oct. 11 to register to vote, Duncan said.

“We are assessing what voting locations are available,” said Duncan, adding, “We must respect the gravity of our situation.”

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(WASHINGTON) — As the conflict in the Middle East escalates, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are both taking a break from campaigning in battleground states on Monday to memorialize the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Harris, alongside second gentleman Doug Emhoff, marked the day by planting a pomegranate tree at the vice president’s residence — a symbol of hope and righteousness in Judaism. Trump visited Ohel Chabad-Lubavitch — considered a sacred site amongst Hasidic Jews — in Queens, New York, where he had an intimate private visit to the Ohel, the gravesite of the Rebbe at the Old Montefiore Cemetery, where he was seen shaking hands with Rabbis and mingling with leaders.

Later, Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks at a remembrance event with Jewish community leaders at his own property Trump National Doral Miami, his campaign announced.

On Monday, Harris urged the country that as they reflect on the horrors of Oct. 7, they also be reminded “we cannot lose faith.”

“I will never forget October 7, and the world must never forget. What is asked of us? We must work to ensure nothing like the horrors of Oct. 7 can ever happen again, and on this solemn day, I will restate my pledge to always ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself, and that I will always work to ensure the safety and security of the Jewish people here and around the world,” Harris pledged.

To commemorate Oct. 7, Harris’ running mate, Gov. Tim Walz visited the “Nova Exhibition” — an exhibit honoring the victims of the Hamas attack — in Culver City, California, on Monday. Walz was greeted by Noa Beer, a survivor of the Oct. 7 attack and an organizer of the Nova Music Festival, and the exhibition’s event producer Virginia Fout upon his arrival at the exhibition, according to the Harris campaign.

Following Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct, 7, 2023, and Israel’s ensuing assaults on Gaza, the conflict in the Middle East has become one of the top issues this election cycle. Pressure for a cease-fire has created a rift within the Democratic Party and Republicans are attempting to capitalize on that moment while Trump’s own inflammatory comments continue to face pushback from critics.

Tune into ABC News Live at 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 7, for “Oct 7th: Race to Survive” — special coverage of the anniversary of the conflict. Veteran correspondent Matt Gutman highlights voices of Israelis and Palestinians impacted by the war and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Since Hamas launched its surprise terrorist attack in Israel one year ago, and Israel responded by declaring war, thousands have reportedly been killed or injured. Israel has said its goal is to destroy Hamas and that it attempts to minimize civilian casualties as often as possible. Meanwhile, a humanitarian crisis has unfolded in Gaza, including the collapse of the health care system.

Harris, while stressing the alliance between the United States and Israel, has appealed to the humanitarian crises in Gaza and has repeatedly called for a cease-fire, including at the Democratic National Convention in August, where she officially introduced herself to the public for the first time as the Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential race.

The Democratic Party is divided on the issue as the war deepens with Iran’s latest attack on Israel. Although Harris has noticeably attempted to thread the needle in an attempt to bridge the ideological gap, concerns remain about whether the Biden-Harris administration lacks influence over Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a preview clip released ahead of her interview on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” Harris remained aligned with President Joe Biden’s position, saying the administration is doing what they can to “allow Israel to defend itself” and that they will continue to put “pressure on Israel and in the region, including Arab leaders” to release the hostages and achieve a cease-fire.

She claimed the negotiations they’ve done with Netanyahu have led to open conversations and changes in Israel’s approach in the region, but dodged the question on whether Netanyahu is a “real close” ally of the U.S., saying, “the better question is: do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is yes.”

Trump on the campaign trail has made an extensive effort to court Jewish American voters, often claiming that “no President has done more for Israel than I have.” Over the course of the campaign, Trump has participated in Jewish-focused campaign events with the Republican Jewish Coalition and the Israeli-American Council.

He has also been campaigning with major donor and vocal Israel-advocate Miriam Adelson, who is investing nearly $90 million in support of Trump in the final months of the 2024 general election.

At the same time, Trump has repeatedly sparked criticism by attacking Jewish Democrats, including Emhoff and Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, claiming that Jewish Americans who vote for Democrats should get their “head examined.”

“They have not been your friends. I don’t understand how anybody can support them,” Trump said during his virtual remarks at the Republican Jewish Coalition annual summit last month. “And I say it constantly. If you had them to support and you were Jewish, you have to have your head examined.”

Trump also criticized Netanyahu, saying in a TIME magazine interview published in April that the Oct. 7 attacks happened “on his watch” and that he has been “rightfully criticized” for the attacks.

“I will say this, Bibi Netanyahu rightfully has been criticized for what took place on Oct. 7,” Trump told TIME, criticizing him again for backing out on what was supposed to be a joint U.S.-Israel operation to assassinate a top Iranian general in 2020.

“It happened on his watch,” Trump said about Netanyahu and the Israel-Hamas war. “And I think it’s had a profound impact on him, despite everything. Because people said that shouldn’t have happened. They have the most sophisticated equipment.”

Still, Trump met with Netanyahu in July, insisting their relationship “was never bad.”

“We’ve had a good working relationship. I was very good to Israel, better than any president has ever been,” Trump claimed after meeting with Netanyahu.

Trump has insisted in his campaign messages that the world was a safer place under his administration, claiming that the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel would not have happened under his presidency and that foreign adversaries are launching attacks because of the Biden-Harris administration’s weakness.

“Ever since Iran has been exporting terror all over the world and, it’s been just unraveling, the whole Middle East has been unraveling, but of course, the whole world has been unraveling since we left office,” Trump said at a campaign event in Waunakee, Wisconsin, last Tuesday just after Iran launched missile attacks on Israel.

Harris also met with Netanyahu in July. After the meeting, she reiterated that Israel has the right to defend itself but added, “how it does so matters.” Harris said that she talked to Netanyahu about her “serious concern” about the collateral damage and suffering of Gazan civilians.

Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, killed about 1,200 people in Israel, with some 250 people kidnapped. And more than 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.

“With over 2 million people facing high levels of food insecurity, and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, what has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating; the images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third or fourth time,” Harris said.

ABC News’ Molly Nagle contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris indicated in a “60 Minutes” interview out Monday that she could get her economic policies through a Republican-controlled Congress, despite the potential for opposition from Republican lawmakers to her proposed tax breaks that drive up the federal deficit.

In a clip of the interview released Monday, “60 Minutes” correspondent Bill Whitaker pressed Harris on how she would pay for the policies, which include tax breaks for small business owners, parents and first-time homebuyers.

“How are you going to get this through Congress?” Whitaker asked.

“You know, when you talk quietly with a lot of folks in Congress, they know exactly what I’m talking about because their constituents know exactly what I’m talking about; their constituents are those firefighters and teachers and nurses,” the vice president responded.

The “60 Minutes” interview, which will air in full Monday night, is the second time in recent weeks Harris has been asked to describe how she would fund her policies.

MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle asked her in an interview last month, “If you can’t raise corporate taxes, or if GOP takes control of the Senate, where do you get the money to do that?”

“Well, but we’re going to have to raise corporate taxes. And we’re going to have to raise — we’re going to have to make sure that the biggest corporations and billionaires pay their fair share,” answered Harris.

The vice president speaks often about her economic plans — a key voter issue in the election — while on the campaign trail, too. Her plans are geared toward helping working-class Americans as she tries to gain ground on an issue, which surveys suggest former President Donald Trump is winning.

In an economics-focused speech last month in Pittsburgh, Harris touted a “pragmatic” vision for the economy, saying she would be “grounded in my fundamental values of fairness, dignity and opportunity.”

Harris, though, is likely to face continuing questions about her plans to fund her ideas.

In another pre-released exceprt of the “60 Minutes” interview, Whitaker challenged Harris on whether Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanahu is “listening” to the Biden administration’s urges to defuse tensions in the Middle East.

“Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region,” Harris said.

Asked if the United States has “a real close ally in Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Harris responded, “I think, with all due respect, the better question is: do we have an important alliance between the American people and the Israeli people? And the answer to that question is yes.”

Harris’ “60 Minutes” interview is part of a flurry of interviews she has set for this week, including with “The View,” “The Howard Stern Show” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” a senior campaign official said.

Her running mate, Gov. Tim Walz, also has a media blitz planned this week with stops at “Jimmy Kimmel Live” as well as being part of the “60 Minutes” interview.

Both Harris and Walz will spend time campaigning out West this week with stops in Nevada and Arizona, according to the senior campaign official.

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(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris, in an appearance on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, slammed Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently suggesting the presidential candidate isn’t humble because she doesn’t have biological children.

Speaking to “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper, who asked about Huckabee Sanders’ remark, “My kids keep me humble. Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble,” Harris suggested the governor is caught in the past.

“I don’t think she understands that there are a whole lot of women out here who, one, are not aspiring to be humble, two, a whole lot of women out here who have a lot of love in their life, family in their life, and children in their life,” Harris told Cooper on “Call Her Daddy,” which Spotify says is the most-listened-to podcast by women. “And I think it’s really important for women to lift each other up.”

Harris, who is stepmother to two now-adult children from her marriage to second gentleman Doug Emhoff, said family comes in many forms.

“We have our family by blood, and then we have our family by love, and I have both, and I consider it to be a real blessing,” she said. “And I have two beautiful children, Cole and Ella, who call me Momala. We have a very modern family. My husband’s ex-wife is a friend of mine.”

She continued, “Family comes in many forms and I think that increasingly, all of us understand that this is not the 1950’s anymore. Families come in all shapes or forms and they are family nonetheless.”

During the 40-minute interview, Cooper also asked Harris about Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, having previously complained he didn’t want the country run by “childless cat ladies.”

“I just think it’s mean and mean-spirited,” Harris told Cooper. “And I think that most Americans want leaders who understand that the measure of their strength is not based on who you beat down; the real measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.”

Harris spent much of the interview discussing abortion rights and what statewide abortion bans can mean for people living in those states — including mothers, who may need to arrange childcare and travel out of state for the procedure.

“Let’s talk about how it affects a real person. The majority of women who receive abortion care are mothers,” Harris said. “So imagine she’s in a state with an abortion ban — one out of three women are, by the way, in our country — and she’s a mom. She’s going to have to figure out, one, God help her if she has affordable childcare, God help her if she has paid leave, and then she’s going to have to go to the airport, stand in a TSA line, sit on a plane next to a perfect stranger, to go to a city where she’s never been to receive the care she needs … and that’s all if they can even afford a plane or a bus ticket.”

Harris made her appeal to listeners who might not personally believe in abortion, emphasizing that women should have the right to choose for themselves.

“You don’t have to abandon your faith or deeply held beliefs to agree that government shouldn’t be telling her what to do. If she chooses, she’ll talk to her priest, her pastor, her rabbi or Imam, but not the government telling you what to do,” Harris said. “And that’s what’s so outrageous about it, is a bunch of these guys up in these state capitals are writing these decisions because they somehow have decided that they’re in a better position to tell you what’s in your best interest than you are to know what’s in your own best interest.”

She continued: “This is not about imposing my thoughts on you in terms of what you do with your life or your body. … It’s actually quite the opposite. It’s saying the government shouldn’t be telling people what to do.”

She also hit back against Trump’s false claim at last month’s presidential debate that some states allow post-birth abortions.

“That is not happening anywhere in the United States. It is not happening, and it’s a lie — it’s a bald-faced lie that he is suggesting,” she said. “Can you imagine, can you imagine — he’s suggesting that women in their ninth month of pregnancy are electing to have an abortion. Are you kidding? That is so outrageously inaccurate, and it’s so insulting to suggest that that would be happening and that women would be doing that. It’s not happening anywhere. This guy is full of lies.”

Harris railed against Trump’s baseless claims about abortion, calling him “careless and irresponsible and reckless.”

Asked by Cooper how she was feeling in the last few weeks of the campaign, Harris said she was feeling both “great” and “nervous.”

“You know, there’s this old adage: there are only two ways to run: without an opponent or scared. So there you go,” Harris said. “The only thing that matters is really just spending as much time as I can, as much time as I possibly can, meeting with people and talking with them about the stakes and their future.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Gov. Tim Walz, in his first Sunday show appearance and only fourth national media interview that’s aired since he was selected to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, addressed the mounting pile of false statements that have surfaced since he joined the Democratic ticket in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”

Fox’s Shannon Bream, asked the governor why he thought the American people should trust him amid the falsehoods — about being in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre, about his military service, about he and his wife using in vitro fertilization when they’d really used intrauterine insemination — when he could be in the line of succession for commander in chief should Harris win in November.

The factual inaccuracies Walz has racked up came to a head during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate with GOP nominee JD Vance. Walz called himself a “knucklehead” for making those mistakes and then made another gaffe during the broadcast.

When talking about gun control, he said he’s become “friends with school shooters” instead of saying he was friends with the victims of school shootings — something he tried to straighten out later in a gaggle with media: “I sat as a member of Congress, with the Sandy Hook parents and it was a profound movement. David Hogg is a good friend of mine,” Walz said.

Walz said on Sunday that he thought the country “heard him” in his cleanup efforts during the debate, and that he’s not afraid to “own up” when he makes a mistake — insinuating that those falsehoods are better than “disparaging” people the way former President Donald Trump does or denying the results of the 2020 election, like Vance.

“Well, I think they heard me. They heard me the other night speaking passionately about gun violence and misspeaking,” Walz said, saying then that he didn’t think people “care” whether he used IUI or IVF when Trump could pose a threat to both fertility treatments if he returns to the White House.

“Look, I speak passionately. I had an entire career decades before I was in public office… I have never disparaged someone else in this. But I know that’s not what Donald Trump does. They disparage everyone, the personal attacks. I will own up when I misspeak. I will own up when I make a mistake,” Walz said in the Fox interview on Sunday.

“Let’s be very clear — on that debate stage the other night, I asked one very simple question, and Senator Vance would not acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. I think they’re probably far more concerned with that than my wife and I used IUI to have our child, and that Donald Trump would restrict that,” he went on.

Walz’s response to his sloppiness with facts has been fine-tuned in the days since the debate. When he spoke to reporters the day after the broadcast, he sought to clean up the issue over when exactly he was in China in 1989, a topic that surfaced last week with reports that he had appeared to falsely claim he was in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre in June of that year.

“Yeah, look, I have my dates wrong,” he acknowledged on Sunday. During the debate, he wan’t as direct: “All’s that I said on this was I got there that summer and misspoke on this, so I will just that’s what I said… So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protest,” he said.

On Saturday, while speaking at a Cleveland fundraiser, Walz also directly addressed the recent reports that he’d inaccurately told certain stories, spinning the trait in a way that criticized the Trump-Vance ticket over Project 2025.

“Working with high school kids, I speak really quickly, and then I say, I stick my foot in my mouth — I have to go back and correct it again,” Walz said.

“So I said one time — they don’t have a plan. That’s untrue. I misspoke on that. They most certainly do have a plan. It’s called Project 2025,” he continued.

Walz’s “Fox News Sunday” interview comes as the Harris-Walz campaign said the governor would be ramping up his relatively quiet national media strategy in a post-debate blitz. He’s also recorded an interview for a CBS’s “60 Minutes” election special on Harris. He’ll be doing the late night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Monday.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(BUTLER, Pa.) — Former President Donald Trump is set to return to the site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, for a rally marked by enhanced security measures around the fairground as supporters call Saturday’s rally a healing moment.

With security at the forefront of people’s minds, officials have taken extra precautions to keep Trump and his supporters safe in the wake of enhanced threats. Semi-trailers have formed a perimeter around the fairgrounds so nobody outside can see in, a contrast to the summer’s rally where spectators had a clear vantage point inside from outside the rally perimeter.

Additionally, the unmanned building that Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to scale and get a clear shot at Trump is now barely visible, with semi-trailers and a tall riser placed in between. Multiple counter snipers are making themselves very visible on the roof of every surrounding building.

Saturday’s rally is expected to feature extensive programming focused on remembering the events of July 13, as well as honoring the resiliency of the Butler community before the former president takes the stage to finish his speech from the summer.

The campaign is also dedicating several moments throughout the program to Corey Comperatore, the rallygoer who was killed while shielding his family. His firefighter uniform is in the stands of where he was sitting in July in memory of him.

Several first responders spoke ahead of Trump, including the doctor who was attending Trump’s rally and attempted to save Comperatore’s life along with Sally Sherry, an ER nurse who helped treat Trump.

“The man that we all see on TV with the strong personality, who sometimes doesn’t mince words, or who is seen as a wealthy, powerful businessman, was not the man that I stood beside that evening. What I saw was a man that in the aftermath of one of the most terrifying experiences of his life, showed resiliency,” Sherry said.

“He showed strength and courage. He showed that his family was at the forefront. He was a husband, a father and a grandfather. He was compassionate and grateful,” she continued.

Many of the rally attendees ABC News spoke with on Saturday said they were here in July, clearly remembering the moment shots rang out in the midst of Trump’s speech nearly three months ago.

They said the violence and tragedy that took place here on July 13 did not discourage them from coming back, instead the experience reinforced their support for Trump.

“There’s an electricity that’s here in this crowd,” said Barry Murray, 29, of Butler, Pennsylvania, who was at the July rally with his girlfriend. “I think a word that could describe it is, altogether, is just strength – strength and unity. I think one of the main goals of being the leader of a nation like America is to be able to unite people, not divide people.”

Brooke Goshen of Beaver, Pennsylvania – a mother of four – attended the July rally with two of her teenage kids and came back to Butler Farm Show with one of them.

“I knew that the security presence was gonna be upgraded a lot this time, so we decided to give it a shot and come back to this historic rally,” Goshen told ABC News about her decision to come back. She also said she was excited to see Elon Musk.

Dave Nacey of Apollo, Pennsylvania, wasn’t at the July Butler rally but decided to attend today’s rally because he felt the need to show more support today.

“I feel that the support needs to be there 100% from everybody,” Nacey said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(BUTLER, Pa.) — Former President Donald Trump is set to return to the site of his first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, for a rally marked by enhanced security measures around the fairground as supporters call Saturday’s rally a healing moment.

With security at the forefront of people’s minds, officials have taken extra precautions to keep Trump and his supporters safe in the wake of enhanced threats. Semi-trailers have formed a perimeter around the fairgrounds so nobody outside can see in, a contrast to the summer’s rally where spectators had a clear vantage point inside from outside the rally perimeter.

Additionally, the unmanned building that Thomas Matthew Crooks was able to scale and get a clear shot at Trump is now barely visible, with semi-trailers and a tall riser placed in between. Multiple counter snipers are making themselves very visible on the roof of every surrounding building.

Saturday’s rally is expected to feature extensive programming focused on remembering the events of July 13, as well as honoring the resiliency of the Butler community before the former president takes the stage to finish his speech from the summer.

The campaign is also dedicating several moments throughout the program to Corey Comperatore, the rallygoer who was killed while shielding his family. His firefighter uniform is in the stands of where he was sitting in July in memory of him.

Several first responders spoke ahead of Trump, including the doctor who was attending Trump’s rally and attempted to save Comperatore’s life along with Sally Sherry, an ER nurse who helped treat Trump.

“The man that we all see on TV with the strong personality, who sometimes doesn’t mince words, or who is seen as a wealthy, powerful businessman, was not the man that I stood beside that evening. What I saw was a man that in the aftermath of one of the most terrifying experiences of his life, showed resiliency,” Sherry said.

“He showed strength and courage. He showed that his family was at the forefront. He was a husband, a father and a grandfather. He was compassionate and grateful,” she continued.

Many of the rally attendees ABC News spoke with on Saturday said they were here in July, clearly remembering the moment shots rang out in the midst of Trump’s speech nearly three months ago.

They said the violence and tragedy that took place here on July 13 did not discourage them from coming back, instead the experience reinforced their support for Trump.

“There’s an electricity that’s here in this crowd,” said Barry Murray, 29, of Butler, Pennsylvania, who was at the July rally with his girlfriend. “I think a word that could describe it is, altogether, is just strength – strength and unity. I think one of the main goals of being the leader of a nation like America is to be able to unite people, not divide people.”

Brooke Goshen of Beaver, Pennsylvania – a mother of four – attended the July rally with two of her teenage kids and came back to Butler Farm Show with one of them.

“I knew that the security presence was gonna be upgraded a lot this time, so we decided to give it a shot and come back to this historic rally,” Goshen told ABC News about her decision to come back. She also said she was excited to see Elon Musk.

Dave Nacey of Apollo, Pennsylvania, wasn’t at the July Butler rally but decided to attend today’s rally because he felt the need to show more support today.

“I feel that the support needs to be there 100% from everybody,” Nacey said.

Copyright © 2024, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.