There’s no indication that any of the recipients responded, officials said, and several media organizations approached over the summer with leaked stolen information have also said they did not respond. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign called the emails from Iran “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity” that were received by only a few people who regarded them as spam or phishing attempts.

The emails were received before the hack of the Trump campaign was publicly acknowledged, and there’s no evidence the recipients of the emails knew their origin.

The announcement is the latest U.S. government effort to call out what officials say is Iran’s brazen, ongoing work to interfere in the election, including a hack-and-leak campaign that the FBI and other federal agencies linked last month to Tehran.

U.S. officials in recent months have used criminal charges, sanctions and public advisories to detail actions taken by foreign adversaries to influence the election, including an indictment targeting a covert Russian effort to spread pro-Russia content to U.S. audiences.

It’s a stark turnabout from the government’s response in 2016, when Obama administration officials were criticized for not being forthcoming about the Russian interference they were seeing on Trump’s behalf as he ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

In this case, the hackers sent emails in late June and early July to people who were associated with Biden’s campaign before he dropped out. The emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” according to a statement released by the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The agencies have said the Trump campaign hack and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign are part of an effort to undermine voters’ faith in the election and to stoke discord.

The FBI informed Trump aides within the last 48 hours that information hacked by Iran had been sent to the Biden campaign, according to a senior campaign official granted anonymity to speak because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.

The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. At least three news outlets — Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post — were leaked confidential material from inside the Trump campaign. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what it received.

Politico reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — passed along what appeared to be a research dossier that the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.

In a statement, Harris campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said the campaign has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails.

“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Finkelstein said. “We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.

Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the effort to dangle stolen information to the Biden campaign “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election” to help Harris.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposes Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

Iran’s intrusion on the Trump campaign was cited as just one of the cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns identified by tech companies and national security officials at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Executives from Meta, Google and Microsoft briefed lawmakers on their plans for safeguarding the election, and the attacks they’d seen so far.

“The most perilous time I think will come 48 hours before the election,” Microsoft President Brad Smith told lawmakers during the hearing, which focused on American tech companies’ efforts to safeguard the election from foreign disinformation and cyberattacks.

Republican nominee Donald Trump said Tuesday that he will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week.

Speaking at his first public appearance following Sunday’s apparent assassination attempt, Trump said Modi is “fantastic” but also called India a “very big abuser” as he criticized several countries for their trade policies with the U.S.

“So when India, which is a very big abuser- he happens to be coming to meet me next week, and Modi, he’s fantastic. I mean, fantastic, man,” Trump said at at town hall in Flint, Michigan. “These, a lot of these leaders are fantastic … You know the expression, they’re at the top of their game, and they use it against us. But India is very tough.”

Trump did not provide further details on the meeting. The Indian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment.

As president, Trump visited India in 2020, vowing to boost trade ties between the two countries. The U.S. is currently India’s second-largest trading partner, behind China.

Modi is scheduled to visit the U.S. from Sept. 21 to 23, and will partake in the fourth Quad Leaders’ Summit in Wilmington, Delaware hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden. The Indian prime minister is also slated to attend and speak before the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

This will be Modi’s first visit to the U.S. since he won a historic third term in office in June.

During Modi’s state visit to Washington in June 2023, the U.S. and India signed a slew of technology and defense deals signaling a new era of bilateral relations.

Since then, cooperation between the two countries has deepened. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of State announced it will partner with the India Semiconductor Mission and India’s electronics and IT government body to improve the global semiconductor value chain.

“The United States and India are key partners in ensuring the global semiconductor supply chain keeps pace with the global digital transformation currently underway. This collaboration between the United States and India underscores the potential to expand India’s semiconductor industry to the benefit of both nations,” the release said.

“It would be an extreme strain on our resources. So it’d be fine with me if they decided not to make that visit,” Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said during a news conference at City Hall on Tuesday.

NBC News reported on Sunday that Trump planned to visit the city “soon,” according to a source familiar with the former president’s planning, after amplifying during a presidential debate a baseless claim that had circulated in right-wing spheres online for weeks, saying Haitian immigrants were “eating the dogs” and cats of local residents.

Officials in Springfield have said the allegations were meritless, with city police issuing a statement that said there were “no credible reports” of pets being harmed by Haitian immigrants.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, had also panned the claims as “garbage” and visited Springfield Tuesday as the city responds to dozens of bomb threats, deemed hoaxes that have led to temporary closures and evacuations of schools and city buildings.

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DeWine said that a campaign visit from a presidential candidate is “generally very, very welcomed,” but acknowledged that it would pose challenges.

“I have to state the reality though that resources are really, really stretched here,” DeWine said.

DeWine said he hasn’t spoken to Trump or Vance and hasn’t heard about the candidates potentially visiting Springfield.

A Trump campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday afternoon.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee who has also spread the false claims about pets in Springfield, told reporters on Tuesday that he hasn’t made plans to visit the city.

Asked on Tuesday whether he would be joining the former president on the trip or if he had his own travel plans, Vance said a trip had not been formalized, but safety would be a top concern.

“I haven’t made plans to go just in the last few days,” Vance said. “I know the president would like to go but also hasn’t made any explicit plans.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Trump and Harris had ‘cordial’ call following apparent assassination attempt
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• Trump’s golf partner recalls moment Secret Service dived on him during assassination attempt

“It’s a crying shame. Literally,” Harris said in her most extensive remarks to date about her Republican opponent’s baseless claims.

“I know that people are deeply troubled by what is happening to that community in Springfield, Ohio, and it’s got to stop,” she said during a discussion hosted by the National Association of Black Journalists.

Follow live campaign coverage here

The city has been hit with dozens of bomb threats, some at elementary schools, after Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, promoted false rumors that immigrants were eating residents’ pet dogs and cats.

“I mean, my heart breaks for this community. You know there were children, elementary school children,” who had to be evacuated on what was supposed to be school picture day, Harris said.

 “A whole community put in fear,” she added.

During last week’s presidential debate, which was viewed by more than 67 million people, Trump said: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”

Harris said of Trump on Tuesday, “When you have that kind of microphone in front of you, you really ought to understand how much your words have meaning.”

“You say you care about law enforcement? Law enforcement resources being put into this because of these serious threats,” Harris said.

“The American people deserve and, I do believe, want better than this,” she added.

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Harris’ remarks.

Vance, speaking at an event in Michigan, said he and Trump are not to blame for the threats to Springfield.

“The governor of Ohio came out yesterday and said every single one of those bomb threats was a hoax, and all of those bomb threats came from foreign countries. So the American media for three days has been lying and saying that Donald Trump and I are inciting bomb threats when, in reality, the American media has been laundering for this information. It is disgusting,” he said Tuesday.

In his statement Monday, Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said that “many of these threats are coming from overseas,” but he did not say all of them originated abroad. He also announced he was deploying dozens of state troopers to help sweep schools.

DeWine was in Springfield on Tuesday and visited elementary school students accompanied by a therapy dog.

In an interview with ABC News on Sunday, DeWine said the immigrants in Springfield are there legally, that there is no evidence that they have been eating pets and that the conspiracy theories were “garbage.”

Springfield Mayor Rob Rue, a Republican, told reporters Tuesday that school attendance is down and that “there’s a high level of fear in our community,” which has been plagued by threats to government offices, as well.

“We did not have threats seven days ago,” Rue said, referring to the Sept. 10 presidential debate, at which Trump amplified the baseless claims.

“We need those on the national stage to stop this and tell the truth,” he said.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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Here’s a breakdown of important dates to know, Election Day information, and what to know about California’s 2024 ballot propositions.

Important Nov. 5 general election dates

• Last day to register is Oct. 21
• Registered voters will get a vote-by-mail ballot. County elections office will begin mailing ballots by Oct. 7
• Ballot drop-off locations open Oct. 8
• Vote centers open for early in-person voting in all Voter’s Choice Act counties starting Oct. 26
• Election Day is Nov. 5.
• Vote-by-mail ballots must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by Nov. 12

Plan Your Vote

Use NBC News’ Plan Your Vote tool to supplement your voter guide and for more information on early voting, mail-in voting rules, Election Day voting rules, voter ID requirements, key-races in your state and more.

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How to track your ballot

Voters can track a ballot they have mailed or submitted at a drop-off location by signing up at WheresMyBallot.sos.ca.gov to receive text, email, or voice status alerts.

How long are polls open on Nov. 5 Election Day?

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Find your Southern California county election office

Your county elections officer is the go-to source for information on voting in the 2024 General Election. Find a link to your county office below.

• Los Angeles County
• Orange County
• Riverside County
• San Bernardino County
• Ventura County
• All California county elections offices

What are the California propositions on the November ballot?

California voters will see 10 propositions on their ballot:

• Proposition 2: Authorizes bonds for public school and community college facilities.
• Proposition 3: Constitutional right to marriage.
• Proposition 4: Authorizes bonds for safe drinking water, wildfire prevention, and protecting communities and natural lands from climate risks.
• Proposition 5: Allows Local bonds for affordable housing and public infrastructure with 55% voter approval.
• Proposition 6: Eliminates constitutional provision allowing involuntary servitude for incarcerated persons.
• Proposition 32: Raises minimum wage.
• Proposition 33: Expands local governments’ authority to enact rent control on residential property.
• Proposition 34: Restricts spending of prescription drug revenues by certain health care providers.
• Proposition 35: Provides permanent funding for Medi-Cal health care services.
• Proposition 36: Allows felony charges and increases sentences for certain drug and theft crimes.

How to serve as a poll worker

If you’re interested in serving as a poll worker, visit pollworker.sos.ca.gov to apply.

In a message posted to multiple social media platforms Monday, Trump accused his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden of taking “politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred.” He said their rhetoric is responsible for threats and violence against him, even though they routinely denounce political violence and did so on Sunday.

Trump’s most powerful ally, billionaire Elon Musk, wondered in a tweet why “no one is even trying to assassinate” Biden and Harris — a post that Musk later said was a joke and deleted.

But it was clear by midday Monday that Trump and his brain trust have no intention of dialing back on hot rhetoric, with less than two months left before Election Day. In turning so fast to Biden and Harris, Trump skipped past appeals for sympathy and even a perfunctory call for calm or unity.

The Republican presidential nominee was playing golf at his West Palm Beach course Sunday afternoon when a Secret Service agent noticed the muzzle of a gun protruding from the bushes several hundred yards from him, Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said at a news conference later that day.

The Secret Service fired at a suspect, who fled and was quickly apprehended by police. Trump was forced to shelter at the golf club for more than an hour before being transported to Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach resort, a source familiar with the matter said.

From Mar-a-Lago, where guests included House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Trump took phone calls from friends expressing their relief, listened in when acting Secret Service director Ronald Rowe phoned Johnson to deliver a briefing on the incident, and told golf-related jokes, according to people familiar with his activities. The scare is unlikely to interfere with his schedule or campaign plans, according to a Trump adviser who has spoken with him since Sunday’s incident.

“There won’t be many noticeable changes or anything too major,” the adviser said. “He is not frazzled or shaken by this, and, considering what he has been through, relatively relaxed.”

But, as Trump avoided a brush with death that could have come as close as the sniper’s bullet that clipped his ear at a Butler, Pennsylvania, rally in July, he once again had a decision to make about his own response: try to seize political advantage from the threats to his life or play them down in order to discourage future violence. It took less than 24 hours for him to choose the former, though there are signs of division within his ranks about his approach.

Some Trump allies believe that the campaign squandered an opportunity for unity following the first assassination attempt. Instead, Trump ramped up his anti-Harris rhetoric, which coincided with him losing traction in polls over the summer.

“Even independents were like, ‘This can’t stand, you can’t assassinate a political candidate,'” said one former Trump adviser. “And then all of a sudden it’s back to the clown show.”

While his campaign’s top advisers focused on his security — and that of his aides — in a message sent to staff Sunday night, his fundraising team pressed donors to give money in the immediate aftermath of the incident. On Monday, he repeated an assertion he made in an ABC News debate last week that Biden and Harris are responsible for him being targeted.

“Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital, “when I am the one who is going to save the country, and they are the ones that are destroying the country — both from the inside out.”

On Sunday, Harris took a much different tack.

“As we gather the facts, I will be clear: I condemn political violence. We all must do our part to ensure that this incident does not lead to more violence,” she said in a statement. “I am thankful that former President Trump is safe.”

Trump has not rebuked Musk for musing about assassinations of the sitting president and vice president.

For a brief moment after he survived being shot in July, Trump aides told the media that he was interested in unifying the country and would attempt to do so in his speech at the Republican National Convention. But he quickly pivoted from that stance and took off running in the other direction. The reversal was evident even within the four corners of that address, delivered July 18 in Milwaukee.

“The discord and division in our society must be healed,” he said in the opening minutes. But later, he accused the Democratic Party of “weaponizing the justice system” because he has been convicted of felonies in New York and charged with crimes related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in federal court.

“We must not criminalize dissent or demonize political disagreement,” he said. “In that spirit, the Democrat Party should immediately stop weaponizing the justice system and labeling their political opponent as an enemy of democracy.”

Since then, he has regularly threatened to jail his political opponents.

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Trump aides say that he will be his own spokesman on the aborted assassination attempt.

“We follow his lead,” said one aide. “We’re not going to get ahead of his truth.”

So far, that truth has been an attack on his political rival, Harris, and her boss, Biden, despite their disavowal of violence as a political tool.

Throughout nearly a decade in national politics, Trump has glorified violence — at least when it is not aimed at him.

“When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” Trump wrote in a social media post during the protests following George Floyd’s 2020 murder by Minneapolis police. He has suggested that the nation’s top general be executed; made light of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband being attacked with a hammer in a gruesome assault; and praised the Jan. 6 rioters who pummeled cops, stormed the Capitol and tried to stop the counting of 2020 electoral votes by force.

It is not immediately clear whether the apparent second attempt on Trump’s life will have an effect on the outcome of the campaign. He was facing a different candidate — Biden — at the time of the Pennsylvania shooting.

Since Harris replaced Biden as the Democrats’ standard-bearer eight days after the first attempt, polls show Democrats to be in a stronger position to win in November. But most surveys reveal an extremely close race in which the two candidates are within the margin of error in pivotal swing states.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Suspect was by the Trump golf course for nearly 12 hours, phone records show
• Trump dispenses with unity and blames Democrats after apparent second assassination attempt
• Suspect in assassination attempt charged with possessing firearm as felon, erasing its serial number

So when some of the industry’s biggest names endorsed former President Donald Trump and the onetime VC he picked for a running mate, JD Vance, people took notice.

Then hundreds of other VCs — some high profile, others lesser-known — threw their weight behind Vice President Kamala Harris, drawing battle lines over which presidential candidate will be better for tech innovation and the conditions startups need to thrive. For years, many of Silicon Valley’s political discussions took place behind closed doors. Now, those casual debates have gone public — on podcasts, social media and online manifestos.

Venture capitalist and Harris backer Stephen DeBerry says some of his best friends support Trump. Though centered in a part of Northern California known for liberal politics, the investors who help finance the tech industry have long been a more politically divided bunch.

“We ski together. Our families are together. We’re super tight,” said DeBerry, who runs the Bronze Venture Fund. “This is not about not being able to talk to each other. I love these guys — they’re almost all guys. They’re dear friends. We just have a difference of perspective on policy issues.”

It remains to be seen if the more than 700 venture capitalists who’ve voiced support for a movement called “VCs for Kamala” will match the pledges of Trump’s well-heeled supporters such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. But the effort marks “the first time I’ve seen a galvanized group of folks from our industry coming together and coalescing around our shared values,” DeBerry said.

“There are a lot of practical reasons for VCs to support Trump,” including policies that could drive corporate profits and stock market values and favor wealthy benefactors, said David Cowan, an investor at Bessemer Venture Partners. But Cowan said he is supporting Harris as a VC with a “long-term investment horizon” because a “Trump world reeling from rampant income inequality, raging wars and global warming is not an attractive environment” for funding healthy businesses.

Several prominent VCs have voiced their support for Trump on Musk’s social platform X. Public records show some of them have donated to a new, pro-Trump super PAC called America PAC, whose donors include powerful tech industry conservatives with ties to SpaceX and Paypal and who run in Musk’s social circle. Also driving support is Trump’s embrace of cryptocurrency and promise to end an enforcement crackdown on the industry.

Although some Biden policies have alienated parts of the investment sector concerned about tax policy, antitrust scrutiny or overregulation, Harris’ bid for the presidency has reenergized interest from VCs who until recently sat on the sidelines. Some of that excitement is due to existing relationships with Silicon Valley that are borne out of Harris’ career in the San Francisco area and her time as California’s attorney general.

“We buy risk, right? And we’re trying to buy the right type of risk,” Leslie Feinzaig, founder of “VCs for Kamala” said in an interview. “It’s really hard for these companies that are trying to build products and scale to do so in an unpredictable institutional environment.”

The schism in tech has left some firms split in their allegiances. Although venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, founders of the firm that is their namesake, endorsed Trump, one of their firm’s general partners, John O’Farrell, pledged his support for Harris. O’Farrell declined further comment.

Doug Leone, the former managing partner of Sequoia Capital, endorsed Trump in June, expressing concern on X “about the general direction of our country, the state of our broken immigration system, the ballooning deficit, and the foreign policy missteps, among other issues.” But Leone’s longtime business partner at Sequoia, Michael Moritz, wrote in the Financial Times that tech leaders supporting Trump “are making a big mistake.”

Shaun Maguire, a partner at Sequoia, posted on X that he donated $300,000 to Trump’s campaign after supporting Hilary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. Federal Election Commission records show that Maguire donated $500,000 to America PAC in June; Leone donated $1 million.

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“The area where I disagree with Republicans the most is on women’s rights. And I’m sure I’ll disagree with some of Trump’s policies in the future,” Maguire wrote. “But in general I think he was surprisingly prescient.”

Feinzaig, managing director at venture firm Graham & Walker, said that she launched “VCs for Kamala” because she felt frustrated that “the loudest voices” were starting to “sound like they were speaking for the entire industry.”

Much of the VC discourse about elections is in response to a July podcast and manifesto in which Andreessen and Horowitz backed Trump and outlined their vision of a “Little Tech Agenda” that they said contrasted with the policies sought by Big Tech.

They accused the U.S. government of increasing hostility toward startups and the VCs who fund them, citing Biden’s proposed higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations and regulations they said could hobble emerging industries involving blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio who spent time in San Francisco working at Thiel’s investment firm, voiced a similar perspective about “little tech” more than a month before he was chosen as Trump’s running mate.

“The donors who were really involved in Silicon Valley in a pro-Trump way, they’re not big tech, right? They’re little tech. They’re starting innovative companies. They don’t want the government to destroy their ability to innovate,” Vance said in an interview on Fox News in June.

Days earlier, Vance had joined Trump at a San Francisco fundraiser at the home of venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks, a longtime conservative. Vance said Trump spoke to about 100 attendees that included “some of the leading innovators in AI.”

DeBerry said he doesn’t disagree with everything Andreesen Horowitz founders espouse, particularly their wariness about powerful companies controlling the agencies that regulate them. But he objects to their “little tech” framing, especially coming from a multibillion-dollar investment firm that he says is hardly the voice of the little guy. For DeBerry, whose firm focuses on social impact, the choice is not between big and little tech but “chaos and stability,” with Harris representing stability.

Complicating the allegiances is that a tough approach to breaking up the monopoly power of big corporations no longer falls along partisan lines. Vance has spoken favorably of Lina Khan, who Biden picked to lead the Federal Trade Commission and has taken on several tech giants. Meanwhile, some of the most influential VCs backing Harris — such as LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; and Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla, an early investor in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI — have sharply criticized Khan’s approach.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat whose California district encompasses part of Silicon Valley, said Trump supporters are a vocal minority reflecting a “third or less” of the region’s tech community. But while the White House has appealed to tech entrepreneurs with its investments in clean energy, electric vehicles and semiconductors, Khanna said Democrats must do a better job of showing that they understand the appeal of digital assets.

“I do think that the perceived lack of embrace of Bitcoin and the blockchain has hurt the Democratic Party among the young generation and among young entrepreneurs,” Khanna said.

Naseem Sayani, a general partner at Emmeline Ventures, said Andreessen and Horowitz’s support of Trump became a lightning rod for those in tech who do not back the Republican nominee. Sayani signed onto “VCs for Kamala,” she said, because she wanted the types of businesses that she helps fund to know that the investor community is not monolithic.

“We’re not single-profile founders anymore,” she said. “There’s women, there’s people of color, there’s all the intersections. How can they feel comfortable building businesses when the environment they’re in doesn’t actually support their existence in some ways?”

Loomer drew widespread condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike last week for posting on social media that the White House “will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center” if Harris wins the presidential election.

“What Laura said about Kamala Harris is not what we should be focused on. We should be focused on the policy and on the issues,” Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate, told moderator Kristen Welker.

After fielding questions from Welker about whether the comments offended Vance and his wife, who is Indian American, the Ohio Republican said he doesn’t “look at the internet for every single thing to get offended by.”

The GOP vice presidential nominee added, “I make a mean chicken curry, [but] I don’t think that it’s insulting for anybody to talk about their dietary preferences or what they want to do in the White House.”

Trump came under fire this week for his seemingly close relationship with Loomer, a far-right activist who traveled with the former president on the campaign trail this week, including to 9/11 memorial services on Wednesday.

In the past, Loomer has espoused conspiracy theories about 9/11. Just this week, she posted, “23 years later, and there’s still a lot of unanswered questions.”

She has also given voice to conspiracy theories about pop star Taylor Swift and her romantic relationship with football player Travis Kelce, calling it “arranged” and saying the relationship is meant to help Democrats win the upcoming election. Loomer has also questioned the reality behind mass shootings, wondering whether they’ve been staged to help Democrats win votes.

On Friday, Trump told NBC News, “I don’t know that much about it. No, I don’t,” when asked whether he’s familiar with Loomer’s conspiracy theories.

He added, “I know she’s a big fan of the campaign, but I really don’t know.”

Later that day, in a post on Truth Social, he wrote that Loomer “doesn’t work for the Campaign. She’s a private citizen and longtime supporter. I disagree with the statements she made but, like the many millions of people who support me, she is tired of watching the Radical Left Marxists and Fascists violently attack and smear me.”

Also on Sunday, Vance once again espoused an unfounded conspiracy theory about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating pets, disputing claims that the allegations are baseless.

“I hear you saying that they’re baseless, but I’m not repeating them because I invented them out of thin air,” Vance said, adding: “I’m repeating them because my constituents are saying these things are happening. … Clearly, these rumors are out there because constituents are seeing it with their own eyes.”

The senator continued to blast “the American media” for pushing back against his claims, telling Welker, “I trust my constituents more than I do the American media that has shown no interest in what’s happened in Springfield until we started sharing cat memes on the internet.”

During an interview on CNN later Sunday, Vance echoed his remarks to NBC News and added, “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people then that’s what I’m going to do.” Asked for clarification on what he meant, Vance said “I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it.”

The debunked claim about Haitian immigrants entered the national spotlight on Tuesday night when Trump referenced the conspiracy theory on the debate stage in Philadelphia following social media posts from the Ohio senator.

“In Springfield, [Ohio], they’re eating the dogs. The people that came in. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame,” Trump said, referencing a falsehood that had previously circulated online in right-wing circles and was also spread by Loomer.

Still, as the week continued, Trump and Vance doubled down on the conspiracy theory, leading some Haitian residents in Springfield to fear for their lives.

Vance on Friday posted that “a massive rise in communicable diseases, rent prices, car insurance rates, and crime” was hitting Springfield, adding: “Don’t let biased media shame you into not discussing this slow-moving humanitarian crisis in a small Ohio town.”

In a post later that same day, he added, “Nothing justifies violence or the threat of violence levied against Springfield or its residents. We condemn both.”

Officials in Springfield and Ohio’s GOP Gov. Mike DeWine have forcefully pushed back on claims that anyone in the town is eating pets.

“Mayor [Rob] Rue of Springfield says, ‘No, there’s no truth in that.’ They have no evidence of that at all. So, I think we go with what the mayor says. He knows his city,” DeWine told CBS News last week, adding that “this is something that came up on the internet, and the internet can be quite crazy sometimes.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com.  More from NBC News:

• Vance says ‘I’ve learned my lesson’ on speaking for Trump
• Trump allies worry his ties to far-right activist Laura Loomer could cost him Georgia and North Carolina
• The Trump campaign’s big bet on a new GOTV strategy worries some Republicans

The image, which caused controversy in August after being shared by the former president on Truth Social, originally circulated with text reading, “Taylor wants you to vote for Joe Biden,” and was posted in a pro-Biden Facebook group with just 8,000 members in December 2023. That post was viewed by NBC News. A reverse-image search conducted by NBC News did not find any earlier incidences of the image being posted online.  

After the pro-Biden image featuring the AI-generated Swift was first posted on Facebook, it began to travel around the pro-Biden internet, particularly among Gen X and baby boomer supporters of the then-candidate. The Facebook group it was initially posted in is largely a place for Democrats to share memes and information in support of Biden and against Trump. 

The image also traveled to X and Instagram’s messaging platform, Threads. S. E. Hinton, author of “The Outsiders,” shared it on X in December. It was posted in a liberal subreddit the same month.

“I am a Boomer for Biden,” one X post of the image was captioned in January. 

The image’s creator, a Democrat, asked NBC News to keep his identity private, wanting to avoid backlash. Inspired by Swift’s 2020 endorsement of Biden, he said he used a generative AI platform to create an image from the text prompt “Taylor Swift as Uncle Sam,” then used Photoshop to add text over it.

On Aug. 17, around nine months after it was posted with the pro-Biden text, a pro-Trump X account with over 340,000 followers posted an edited version that read, “Taylor wants you to vote for Donald Trump.” The X account did not respond to a request for comment about whether it edited the image itself or where it came from. The next day, Trump posted a screenshot of the X post on his Truth Social account with the caption, “I accept!”

“I woke up one morning and I got a text message from somebody who sent me a picture of the altered version and said, ‘Was this you?’ I was like, ‘Yeah that’s an altered version of my original,’” the person who created the AI image of Swift endorsing Biden told NBC News in a phone interview. “I didn’t think much of it until I sat down and started looking at the news. It started blowing up from there, with people saying Taylor might sue him and I thought, ‘Holy crap, what did I do?’”

On Tuesday, after the presidential debate between Trump and Harris, Swift posted an endorsement for Harris on Instagram. In the caption, she cited the AI-generated image Trump posted as one of the reasons why she wanted to make her stance known publicly. 

“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation,” Swift wrote. “It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth.”

Swift included a link to the official voter registration website in the Instagram Story announcing her endorsement. In the 24 hours that followed, more than 400,000 people clicked the link from her account.

“I agree with Taylor that AI, when used by bad actors, can be a danger to democracy,” the AI image creator said. “If this leads to stronger regulation, I’m not only happy to comply, but I’ll be happy that it makes the world a safer place.”

The AI image creator, an artist, said he initially started experimenting with AI to stay in step with technological advancement he perceived as a threat to his career. He said he realized it could be a useful way to create political satire. 

His public Facebook group is where he posts content in support of Democrats, starting with Biden’s presidential campaign in 2020 and now in support of Harris’ presidential campaign. 

“I didn’t think it would go down this way,” he said. “The intent of it was to boost support for Joe Biden because his communication was poor and his polls were low and Trump was a looming threat and I just couldn’t stand idly by.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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Trump was in the Los Angeles area for a fundraiser Thursday and a speech Friday at his golf course in the coastal community of Rancho Palos Verdes. After the speech, Trump was asked whether he will endorse Garvey in the Senate race against U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff.

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“I don’t know much about Steve Garvey. I think he’s made a big mistake because he hasn’t reached out to MAGA,” Trump said. “If he doesn’t have MAGA, he has no chance.”  

The former major league baseball player has distanced himself from the Republican presidential nominee as he campaigns in deep blue California. 

“I’m hearing he wants the MAGA endorsement, but he’s got to call me. If he had the MAGA endorsement, he could win,” Trump added.

No Republican has won a statewide office in California since 2006. 

In a statement to NBC4, Steve Garvey said he’s only focused on the issues that matter most to Californians. 

“Since day one, I’ve ran a different type of campaign, I have not taken or asked for a single political endorsement, the only endorsements I want are from the law enforcement community and first responders,” Garvey said. 

Garvey will face Burbank Congressman Schiff in November, a vocal critic of Trump who helped lead the impeachment efforts against him. Trump used the opportunity Friday to rail against Schiff, calling him “one of the most disgusting human beings.” 

“You have one of the sleaziest politicians in history,” the former president said of Schiff. “And to think he’s going to be Senator, that’s why you need me as president.” 

In a social media post, Schiff responded to the attacks from Mr. Trump,  saying “I don’t think he likes me.” 

Earlier Friday, Trump spoke at Trump National Golf Course with the Pacific Ocean in the background. The seaside community has been plagued by landslides that forced people from their homes.

Trump briefly addressed the land movement and voiced support for residents. Local leaders were doing a “great job” of responding to the crisis, he said. About a dozen people gathered along the road leading into the golf club. Some held signs reading “Save Our Homes” and “Slip Sliding Away.” Other signs read “200+ Homes, No Gas, No Power, No Help.”

Trump, fresh off Tuesday’s debate with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, also met with RPV Mayor John Cruikshank.

“I want to express my support for all of the families affected by the landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes,” Trump said. “This area is very solid, but you go a couple of miles down, you’ll see something that’s pretty amazing. The mountain is moving. And it could be stopped but they need some help from the government. So I hope they get the help. And I’m sure John will have the help. And I want to thank the mayor for the great job he’s doing, and tell that to the people, what a great job he’s doing.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in the seaside community earlier this month a day after more homes lost power due to the shifting land.

Trump also spent a lengthy amount of time disparaging his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump was expected to head to Woodside in Northern California for another fundraiser. He was scheduled to attend an evening reception Thursday for a fundraiser in the LA area, according to a post by the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. The location for the event, which comes just over 50 days ahead of Election Day, was not provided.

Attending the event cost a minimum of $3,300, according to City News Service.

The GOP presidential nominee was last in Southern California in June, when he attended a sold- out luncheon event in Newport Beach and an evening event in Beverly Hills. That visit was Trump’s first to Southern California since Sept. 29-30, when he spoke at the California Republican Party Fall Convention in Anaheim and a fundraiser in Costa Mesa and visited the Carvel Ice Cream shop in Westwood.

The Southern California visit follows a stop Thursday in Arizona for a rally in Tucson. Also Thursday, Trump said in a Truth Social post that there will not be another debate against his Democratic rival.

NBCLA’s Jonathan Lloyd contributed to this report.

“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,″ Francis said.

The Argentine Jesuit was asked to provide counsel to American Catholic voters during an airborne news conference while he flew back to Rome from his four-nation tour through Asia. Francis stressed that he is not an American and would not be voting.

Neither Republican candidate Donald Trump nor the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, was mentioned by name.

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But Francis nevertheless expressed himself in stark terms when asked to weigh in on their positions on two hot-button issues in the U.S. election — abortion and migration — that are also of major concern to the Catholic Church.

Francis has made the plight of migrants a priority of his pontificate and speaks out emphatically and frequently about it. While strongly upholding church teaching forbidding abortion, Francis has not emphasized church doctrine as much as his predecessors.

Francis said migration is a right described in Scripture and that anyone who does not follow the Biblical call to welcome the stranger is committing a “grave sin.”

He was also blunt in speaking about abortion. “To have an abortion is to kill a human being. You may like the word or not, but it’s killing,” he said. “We have to see this clearly.”

Asked what voters should do at the polls, Francis recalled the civic duty to vote.

“One should vote, and choose the lesser evil,” he said. “Who is the lesser evil, the woman or man? I don’t know.

“Everyone in their conscience should think and do it,” he said.

It’s not the first time Francis has weighed in on a U.S. election. In the run-up to the 2016 election, Francis was asked about Trump’s plan to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. Francis declared then that anyone who builds a wall to keep out migrants “is not Christian.”

In responding Friday, Francis recalled that he celebrated Mass at the U.S.-Mexico border and “there were so many shoes of the migrants who ended up badly there.”

Trump pledges massive deportations, just as he did in his first White House bid, when there was a vast gulf between his ambitions and the legal, financial and political realities of such an undertaking.

The U.S. bishops conference, for its part, has called abortion the “preeminent priority” for American Catholics in its published voter advice. Harris has strongly defended abortion rights and has emphasized support for reinstating a federal right to abortion.

In his comments, the pope added: “On abortion, science says that a month from conception, all the organs of a human being are already there, all of them. Performing an abortion is killing a human being. Whether you like the word or not, this is killing. You can’t say the church is closed because it does not allow abortion. The church does not allow abortion because it’s killing. It is murder.”

However, cells are only beginning the process of developing organs in the earliest weeks of pregnancy. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says that by 13 weeks, all major organs have formed. For example, cardiac tissue starts to form in the first two months — initially a tube that only later evolves into the four chambers that define a heart.

In other comments, Francis:

— denied a French media report that he would travel to Paris for the December inauguration of the restored Notre Dame Cathedral, saying flat-out he would not be there. But he confirmed he would like to go to the Canary Islands to highlight the plight of migrants.

— tamped down renewed speculation that he might finally return to Argentina later this year, saying he wants to go but that nothing had been decided. He added: “There are various things to resolve first.” Francis has not been home since before the 2013 conclave that elected him pope.

— declared that China was “a promise and a hope” for the Catholic Church and hoped to one day visit.

— called sexual abuse “demonic” and weighed on the latest revelations of assault against a legendary French priest, Abbe Pierre.

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

“Laura has been a supporter of mine. Just like a lot of people are supporters, and she’s been a supporter of mine. She speaks very positively of the campaign. I’m not sure why you asked that question,” Trump told reporters at a press conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle blasted Loomer, who repeatedly appeared alongside Trump this week — including at a Sept. 11 memorial event — as she promoted baseless and inflammatory remarks about immigrants on her social media accounts. Loomer lashed out at Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., in response to their criticisms.

“I don’t control Laura. Laura — she’s a, she’s a free spirit. Well, I don’t know. I mean, look, I can’t tell Laura what to do,” Trump added on Friday.

Loomer’s relationship with Trump came under particular scrutiny after the former president mentioned a conspiracy theory about immigrants eating pets during a debate with Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday.

Loomer did not immediately return a request for comment about Trump’s remark Friday. Representatives for the Trump and Harris campaigns also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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The baseless theory, which city officials and police have denied, originated online and spread through far-right circles.

Several of Loomer’s posts on social media this week came under fire, including one where she nodded to a conspiracy theory about the 9/11 attacks.

“23 years later, and there’s still a lot of unanswered questions,” Loomer posted Friday, alongside a video of Trump in 2001 questioning whether airplanes could cause explosions like the ones that happened at the Twin Towers on 9/11.

In another post, Loomer alleged that the “White House will smell like curry & White House speeches will be facilitated via a call center” if Harris wins the presidential election.

That statement earned her condemnation from Greene, who called the comment “appalling and extremely racist.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing Thursday of Loomer, “No leader should ever associate with someone who spreads this kind of ugliness, this kind of racist poison.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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Researchers will continue to track this information and update the site accordingly.

“They upped the rent, then they upped the rent again,” Sanford-Cobb said. “So every year basically they start upping the rent.”

California cities including San Francisco aren’t allowed to expand rent control to newer apartment buildings or single family homes because of the 1995 Costa-Hawkins Act, a state law that prohibited cities from enacting their own rent control ordinances.

Renters like Sanford-Cobb are pinning hopes Proposition 33 on the November ballot, which would repeal Costa-Hawkins, and allow cities to broaden rent control protections.

“I know corporate want to make money,” Sanford-Cobb said. “But we also want to stay in the building and not end up in the streets.”

Those challenges are familiar to housing advocates who have seen the impact to the state’s renters.

“We see everywhere across the state people being priced out of their homes, priced out of their units,” said Daniel Anderson of the Yes On 33 Campaign. “People can’t afford to stay in the communities they grew up in.”

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Tenant rights groups said the compounding of year-after-year rent increases of five or ten percent in non-rent controlled buildings across the state is driving more people out of their units.

Fred Sherburn-Zimmer, a tenant rights organizer with the San Francisco Housing Rights Committee stood on a corner in San Francisco’s Mission District and pointed out numerous modern buildings where tenants aren’t protected by rent control. She pointed out another large Mission Street building built in 1990 that also wasn’t protected.

“Cities need to be able to protect their residents,” said Sherburn-Zimmer. “And if you don’t have rent control in a city like San Francisco the rent is just going to jump and jump.”

If passed, Prop 33 would not automatically impose rent control statewide. But it would give local jurisdictions the power to expand rent control to more modern buildings and single family homes.

San Francisco Board of Supervisor and mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin signaled the board was already looking to pass an expanded rent control ordinance if Prop 33 passes.

But apartment owner groups across the state are opposed to Prop 33, saying it would create another challenge for building owners who are already struggling to make profits due to a myriad of restrictions. San Jose apartment owner Gustavo Gonzalez said expanding rent control would pose a big hit to landlords like him.

“We’ve saved our money and we’ve invested in an apartment building with the hopes that one day we could retire and have some income from that property,” said Gonzalez. “That’s not the way it’s working with all of these rules and regulations that cities have mandated upon us.”

San José Mayor Matt Mahan is also opposed to Prop 33 because he believes it would dissuade construction of new apartment buildings.

“Study after study has shown that while rent control can stabilize the folks who are lucky enough to be covered by it,” Mahan said, “it decreases investment in new housing which is the single greatest need we have when it comes to affordability.”

Similar rent control ordinances have failed in the state in recent years, as apartment organizations dumped large amounts of money to defeat those measures.

But Sanford-Cobb is hoping this time Prop 33 will prevail and offer more protections to renters like her who have watched the rent go up each year.

“You take like one step up,” Sanford-Cobb said, “and then you take three steps back.”

Now activists hoping to nullify Prop 8 once and for all are going to the November ballot with Prop 3, another constitutional measure that would officially scrub Prop 8 from the state books and declare same-sex marriage a fundamental right. 

“What we’re trying to do is to just take that dirty stain off the California constitution,” said Shay Franco-Clausen, political director with Equality California.

The Supreme Court’s decision legalizing same-sex marriage across the nation seemed to quell the tumultuous ride of same-sex marriage in California, which began in 2004 when then-San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom instructed the city to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, which were voided six months later by the California Supreme Court.

But Franco-Clausen worries a change in national leadership could open the door for opponents of same-sex marriage to pounce. It’s why she is working to make sure Prop 3 passes. 

“Seeing what happened with Roe v. Wade, we’re just preparing California to be a safe haven for those people that are married so we make sure it’s legal here in California,” Franco-Clausen said.

Franco-Clausen and her wife Yolanda Franco-Clausen married in October 2013, not long after the Supreme Court issued its decision declaring the federal government can’t discriminate against married lesbian and gay couples. They had spent years on the sidelines of the same-sex marriage issue – supporting other couples and working politically to establish same-sex marriage rights – finally walking down the aisle themselves on the 10th anniversary of their relationship. 

“This commitment was about making sure that two people –it doesn’t matter their gender, doesn’t matter their race, doesn’t matter what they look like – can legally be together,” she said.

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A number of religious groups have spoken out in opposition to Prop 3, saying same-sex marriage goes against their beliefs. Jonathan Keller of the California Family Council said his concern revolved around Prop 3’s guarantee of a “fundamental right to marry.” which he believes is too ambiguous.  

“Prop 3 removes any boundaries on marriage,” Keller said. “There is no definition under Prop 3 on the genetic relationship between people who could get married, the age of people who could get married, or the number of people who could get married.” 

Franco-Clausen pointed out that in addition to the emotional aspect, marriage was also practical by entitling married couples to share insurance and to make medical or end-of-life decisions. 

“We’re actually not asking for anything additional,” she said. “We’re asking for the same rights as everyone else.”  

“We just don’t think it’s necessary,” Trump told Telemundo Arizona in an exclusive interview ahead of his campaign rally in Tucson Thursday.

“I had one with as you know, Joe, it was quite a famous debate, and then we had another one the other day and it was both very successful. In fact, my poll numbers went up since the debate and we think we’ve discussed everything and I don’t think they want it either.”

The former president in a Truth Social post earlier Thursday claimed that he won his first debate against Harris on Tuesday night, citing as evidence the fact that Harris’ campaign had challenged him to another debate shortly after the first one ended.

The post read in part, “THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!”

Harris said at a rally in North Carolina on Thursday that she and Trump “owe” voters another debate, NBC News reported.

“Two nights ago, Donald Trump and I had our first debate, and I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate, because this election and what is at stake could not be more important,” Harris said.

The presidential running mates, Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are still set to meet on Oct. 1 for their only vice-presidential debate.

In the interview Thursday, Trump was also asked about the sensational and baseless claim he made during the debate that Haitian immigrants in Ohio have been eating dogs and other pets; he did not back down, saying he’d heard the information “from local authorities, but also from the newspapers.”

Baseless rumors have spread on social media for days claiming that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio are abducting and eating pets. Police there knocked down the stories Monday in a statement saying they hadn’t seen any documented examples.

“There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” the statement said.

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Both political parties’ national conventions, the presidential inauguration and the U.N. General Assembly already have this designation, but it’s the first time the Jan. 6 vote count and certification have received it.

The Secret Service said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made the designation following a request from the mayor of Washington, D.C. The move means these are particularly high-profile events that might be targets for terrorists or criminals.

The Secret Service is in charge of running security for such events in a planning process that kicks off many months in advance. A steering committee for the Jan. 6 certification has been formed and will begin meeting in the coming weeks, the Secret Service said.

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The goal is to improve planning and coordination, especially when it comes to pulling in resources across the federal government.

“National Special Security Events are events of the highest national significance,” Eric Ranaghan, the special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Dignitary Protective Division, said in a statement. The agency and its partners “are committed to developing and implementing a comprehensive and integrated security plan to ensure the safety and security of this event and its participants,” he said.

Rioters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election descended on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021. They scaled walls, shattered windows, beat police and hunted down lawmakers in the halls of Congress. About 140 police officers were injured that day. One officer collapsed and died. Four others later died by suicide. A Trump supporter seeking to climb through a broken window was shot and killed by authorities.

In the aftermath of the riot, 1,500 criminal cases have been brought to court with more than 900 people pleading guilty and roughly 200 convicted.

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Thursday that House Democrats are “committed to protecting the democracy, we’re committed to free and fair elections and we’re committed to the peaceful transfer of power that will begin on Jan. 6.”

Asked if the special security designation was needed, he said that given what happened in 2021, “and the refusal by many extreme MAGA Republicans to stop something like that from ever happening again … this designation by national security professionals seems to have been necessary.”

It’s a high-profile job for an agency struggling to defend its reputation in the wake of the assassination attempt against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

The Secret Service has been criticized for failing to secure the building that Thomas Matthew Crooks climbed on top of and opened fire as Trump spoke. A bullet nicked Trump on the ear. The agency’s director, Kim Cheatle, resigned after a heated congressional hearing, and the agency’s decisions and planning are the subject of multiple investigations.

___

AP Writer Lisa Mascaro contributed reporting.

Trump, fresh off Tuesday’s debate with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, was scheduled to attend an evening reception Thursday for a fundraiser in the LA area, according to a post by the Republican Party of Los Angeles County. The location for the event, which comes just over 50 days ahead of Election Day, was not provided.

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Attending the event cost a minimum of $3,300, according to City News Service.

On Friday, Trump spoke at Trump National Golf Course in Rancho Palos Verdes with the Pacific Ocean in the background. The seaside community has been plagued by landslides that forced people from their homes.

Trump briefly addressed the land movement and voiced support for residents. Local leaders were doing a “great job” of responding to the crisis, he said. About a dozen people gathered along the road leading into the golf club. Some held signs reading “Save Our Homes” and “Slip Sliding Away.” Other signs read “200+ Homes, No Gas, No Power, No Help.”

Trump also met with RPV Mayor John Cruikshank.

“I want to express my support for all of the families affected by the landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes,” Trump said. “This area is very solid, but you go a couple of miles down, you’ll see something that’s pretty amazing. The mountain is moving. And it could be stopped but they need some help from the government. So I hope they get the help. And I’m sure John will have the help. And I want to thank the mayor for the great job he’s doing, and tell that to the people, what a great job he’s doing.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in the seaside community earlier this month a day after more homes lost power due to the shifting land.

Geologists have said that shifting land, which accelerated after 2023 rainstorms, could potentially threaten hundreds of more homes. Scientists working to stop the movement said their findings showed the issue is much deeper than they originally thought. They found the issue below the surface, described as a much deeper “slip plain,” is moving faster and wider than anticipated.

Trump also spent a lengthy amount of time disparaging his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. He said the country cannot allow Harris “and the communist left to do to America what they did to the state of California.”

Trump was expected to head to Woodside in Northern California for another fundraiser.

The GOP presidential nominee was last in Southern California in June, when he attended a sold- out luncheon event in Newport Beach and an evening event in Beverly Hills. That visit was Trump’s first to Southern California since Sept. 29-30, when he spoke at the California Republican Party Fall Convention in Anaheim and a fundraiser in Costa Mesa and visited the Carvel Ice Cream shop in Westwood.

The Southern California visit follows a stop Thursday in Arizona for a rally in Tucson. Also Thursday, Trump said in a Truth Social post that there will not be another debate against his Democratic rival.

Vice President Harris was in North Carolina Thursday, with stops planned for Charlotte and Greensboro.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday said there will not be another debate against his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris.

The former president in a Truth Social post claimed that he won his first debate against Harris on Tuesday night. He cited as evidence the fact that Harris’ campaign had challenged him to another debate shortly after the first one ended.

Numerous conservative commentators and some of Trump’s own supporters have said Harris outperformed him.

But Trump in Thursday’s post wrote, “When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH.'”

“Polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate, on Tuesday night, and she immediately called for a Second Debate,” Trump wrote.

Multiple post-debate polls actually show audiences by a sizable margin believe Harris won. In the wake of the debate, Trump and his allies lashed out at host network ABC News and accused the moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, of political bias.

The showdown in Philadelphia was Trump’s second presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle. He debated in late June against President Joe Biden, who performed so badly that he ultimately withdrew his reelection bid and endorsed Harris as his replacement.

Trump in his Truth Social post wrote, “KAMALA SHOULD FOCUS ON WHAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE DURING THE LAST ALMOST FOUR YEAR PERIOD. THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE!”

Less than an hour after that post was sent, Harris again called for another debate.

“Two nights ago, Donald Trump and I had our first debate,” she said at a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“And I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate because this election and what is at stake could not be more important.”

The two presidential running mates, Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are still set to meet Oct. 1 for their one and only vice presidential debate.

The campaigns have publicly squabbled over the debate schedule since Harris took over the Democratic ticket.

Trump had previously tried to push Harris to accept an early-September debate on Fox News. He also said at one point that he was game for another debate hosted by NBC News on Sept. 25. Harris’ campaign did not immediately agree to that debate.

Trump had waffled on whether to participate in an ABC-hosted debate, claiming that his ongoing defamation lawsuit against the network and anchor George Stephanopoulos created a “conflict of interest.”

The campaigns also traded barbs about the debate rules, with Harris’ team unsuccessfully pushing for both candidates’ microphones to stay on even when it was not their turn to answer.

Trump and Harris ended up facing off for the first, and possibly only, time Tuesday night.

Moments after the debate ended, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon called for a second debate in October.

“Vice President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?” she said.

Trump claimed victory in the debate, and quickly cast doubt on whether he would agree to another round.

In a Truth Social post Wednesday, he wrote, “Why would I do a Rematch?”

The General Services Administration, which oversees the website, confirmed to NBC News that as of 2 p.m. ET Wednesday, 337,826 people have visited a custom URL that Swift posted on Instagram when she announced she was endorsing Harris.

The custom URL directs people to vote.gov, a website that helps visitors to register to vote in their state. The site also breaks down Americans’ voting rights, explains election processes and provides a roadmap to frequently asked questions.

Swift’s Tuesday post, which has garnered more than 9.6 million likes, urged voters to do their own research and remember to register to vote.

“I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice,” she said. “Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make. I also want to say, especially to first time voters: Remember that in order to vote, you have to be registered! I also find it’s much easier to vote early. I’ll link where to register and find early voting dates and info in my story.”

In a boost to the Harris campaign, Swift unveiled her endorsement to her massive Instagram following of 283 million accounts after the debate.

“I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them,” Swift said in her post. “I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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Swift Tuesday posted on Instagram her official endorsement of Kamala Harris as the next president following the debate with former President Donald Trump.

It was an announcement so highly anticipated that it garnered over one million likes in 13 minutes, with 10 million on the horizon.

Among the millions of likes fans observed was WNBA star Caitlin Clark, the 22-year-old who is making major waves in women’s sports and the sporting spectrum in general.

Clark on Wednesday explained why she liked Swift’s endorsement, citing the need to bolster her own platform for political awareness.

“I have this amazing platform, so I think the biggest thing would be to encourage people to register to vote,” Clark said. “…I think that’s the biggest thing I can do with the platform that I have and that’s the same thing Taylor did.

“And I think continue to educate yourself with the candidates that we have, the policies that they’re supporting…that’s what I would recommend to every single person that has that opportunity in our country.”

Clark did not outright endorse either candidate when asked in the same question.

Along with her post, Swift also shared a link to a government website that directs users to state-specific voting information, which saw at least 337,000 people visit it.

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As Harris and former President Donald Trump walked on stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night for their first presidential debate, the vice president strolled past her podium and over to Trump, confidently initiating a handshake and greeting him.

“Let’s have a good debate,” Harris said.

“Good luck,” Trump responded before Harris returned to her podium.

It was a move to assert dominance that, in the past, Trump himself would regularly use. 

Follow live politics coverage here

Harris going on the offensive in that initial exchange was emblematic of much of the ensuing 90 minutes, which ultimately ended up being a stunning juxtaposition to the first presidential debate in June that saw Trump victorious over Joe Biden to the degree that the president dropped out of the race.

The debate amounted to a missed opportunity for many Trump allies, who hoped that a solid performance would turn the page on Harris’ “honeymoon” period.

Debates roughly two months apart have had drastically different outcomes for Trump, leaving some of his supporters concerned that his most recent performance could leave him spiraling, while others defended his performance.

“Kamala had the burden of convincing voters she could turn around an economy that is failing due to her tie-breaking votes in the Senate,” said Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, a longtime Trump ally who helped him with debate preparations. “She failed to meet the moment, with President Trump effectively reflecting the economic anxieties off Americans.”

“Kamala’s joy doesn’t pay the grocery bills,” he added. “President Trump showed he’s determined to fix what she has broken.”

There was, however, concern even among some who support Trump that his lackluster performance less than two months ahead of Election Day is a self-inflicted wound.

“I know everyone in the world has said this, but the inability or unwillingness to realize when he’s being baited and not fall for it is constantly baffling,” a longtime Republican operative said.

Others inside Trump’s debate camp, who were granted anonymity to speak freely, said that they agree the performance was lackluster, and at times Harris caught him flat-footed, but they were skeptical that during an election cycle in which both sides are already entrenched in their positions that this debate could move many votes.

“It was not his best performance, without question,” one Trump adviser said. “But he did enough to get out, I think, without really losing any votes. Like everything else, the debate will have a short shelf life. People will move on to what’s next.”

Trump has taken part in 18 debates over his three runs for president, making him among the most experienced debate participants in American political history. In nearly all those contests, Trump was a tour de force, using his hyperaggressive style and willingness to flood the zone with lies to take up most of the oxygen in the room and overshadow his opponents. 

“This guy does not play by the rules, which means then he has more options, and when someone has more options, he’s a more challenging person to debate,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC before the debate began. “So, I’m not suggesting this is not only high stakes, this is a huge challenge.”

This time, however, those Trump axioms did not play out against Harris, who throughout the night baited the former president into focusing on the sort of grievances — like the size of the crowds at his rallies — that he has long fixated on, and conspiratorial falsehoods — like Haitian immigrants in Ohio eating family pets — that Trump advisers hoped he would avoid in order to focus on a Harris record that is replete with policy position changes.

“They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said during an answer related to immigration. “They’re eating the pets of the people that live there, and this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

In a brief appearance in the spin room after the debate, Trump doubled down on the debunked story, which was started by his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and has been rebutted by local officials.

In that same exchange with reporters, Trump said it was his “best debate ever.”

The perception that Trump lost the debate was so overwhelming that even some of his staunchest cheerleaders were unable to spin the performance in its immediate aftermath.

“While I don’t think the debate hosts were fair to @RealDonaldTrump @KamalaHarris exceeded most people’s expectations tonight,” Elon Musk posted on his social media platform X on Tuesday night.

Not only has Musk endorsed Trump, but he is also funding a pro-Trump super PAC.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham said Harris “moved the points a little bit on betting markets,” while three other Republican sources told NBC News that Trump came off as “angry” as Harris pushed his buttons and got him going off on tangents after questions about some of his key policy areas.

Christopher Rufo, a right-wing education reformer and prominent conservative activist, said Harris won the night.

“Harris wins slightly on points,” he posted on social media. “This shouldn’t change the race significantly either way, but she was able to de-risk this event and now the Right has lost the narrative that Harris is refusing media or engagement. Will be interesting to see if she goes silent again.”

Blaming ABC News moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis did become a common theme for Trump supporters looking to try to put a positive spin on the night’s events. On a handful of occasions, the pair fact-checked Trump in real time, something his supporters said was evidence of bias — especially because they did it noticeably less for Harris. She brought far fewer falsehoods to the debate.

“I’m still perplexed why any Republican candidate for president submits themselves to activist moderators who are driven to integers and undermine any conservative Republican in any debate,” said Ed McMullen, a South Carolina-based Trump fundraiser who served as ambassador to Switzerland during Trump’s first term in office. 

He said there should have been less of a focus on abortion, which has been a key issue after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and has, so far, been an issue that has benefited Democrats politically.

“People are suffering in this economy and left and right politicos want to talk about abortion,” McMullen said. “The states now have the responsibility to act — get it over with. Time to move on and face the issues that real people are affected by every day.”

Others were critical specifically of the debate moderators’ failure to focus enough on Harris’ own background, which includes her own 2020 run for president where she staked out several positions in the Democratic primary that are now seen as far left in a general election.

Those positions, many of which were outlined in recent CNN reporting about an American Civil Liberties Union candidate questionnaire that Harris filed out at the time, include saying that she supported using taxpayer dollars to pay for gender transition surgeries for immigrants in federal prison.

“It is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition,” Harris wrote. “That’s why, as Attorney General, I pushed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide gender transition surgery to state inmates.”

It became a much-discussed topic of conversation among Trump supporters.

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“Do you think it’s strange that someone could support something as radical as sex change operations paid for by taxpayers for convicts and illegal immigrants … and not get asked a question about it?” Fox News’ Sean Hannity asked Trump in a post-debate interview.

“I brought it up,” Trump responded. “They were not so happy when I brought it up.”

Omeed Malik, a veteran Wall Street executive who has pledged to raise $3 million for Trump, said the former president made a “strong case” for his economic message, which includes reducing regulations, cutting taxes, strengthening the border and ending foreign wards.

“In contrast,” he said. “Harris provided canned and rehearsed platitudes unable to defend her administration’s failures around inflation, immigration and foreign policy.”

Adding to the chaos of the night was a post-debate endorsement of Harris from Taylor Swift. The pop star posted on Instagram that she is endorsing Harris because “she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them.” 

Swift has 283 million followers on Instagram, far more than the number of people who voted in the 2020 election.

In an early morning call-in to “Fox and Friends,” Trump once again defended his debate performance and predicted Swift would regret her endorsement.

“I am not a Taylor Swift fan, he said, adding, “She will probably pay a price for it in the market.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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“I don’t want my place and my platform to be used to endorse a candidate or do whatever, either way,” Mahomes said before heading out to practice for Sunday’s game against Cincinnati. “I think my place is to inform people to get registered to vote. It’s to inform people to do their own research and then make the best decision for them and their family.”

The comments from the three-time Super Bowl champion came less than a day after Taylor Swift, who is dating his Chiefs teammate Travis Kelce and has become friends with the Mahomes family, endorsed Harris for the presidency.

Swift’s endorsement led Trump to say in a phone interview with Fox News on Wednesday: “I actually like Mrs. Mahomes much better, if you want to know the truth. She’s a big Trump fan. I like Brittany. I think Brittany is great.”

Trump began referencing Brittany Mahomes last month, after she had liked — and then unliked — an Instagram post by the Republican presidential nominee outlining the “2024 GOP platform.” Trump posted soon afterward on Truth Social: “I want to thank beautiful Brittany Mahomes for so strongly defending me.”

Brittany Mahomes has since stayed out of the political spotlight except to respond to critics on social media, saying in a post: “To be a hater as an adult, you have to have some deep rooted issues you refuse to heal from childhood.”

Patrick Mahomes sidestepped a question Wednesday specifically about Trump’s references to his wife, saying instead that “at the end of the day, it’s about me and my family and how we treat other people.”

“I think you see Brittany does a lot in the community. I do a lot in the community to help bring people up, and give people an opportunity to use their voice,” he said. “In political times people are going to use stuff here and there, but I can’t let that affect how I go about my business every single day of my life, and trying to live it to the best of my ability.”

Swift became close with the Mahomes family last year, when she began to date Kelce, often sharing the same suite during games at Arrowhead Stadium. Some thought a rift had developed between them when they were not seen together during the Chiefs’ season-opening win over the Ravens last week, but they showed up together in New York last weekend to watch the U.S. Open.

“Whenever I’m hanging out with whoever, I’m not thinking about their political views or anything like that,” Patrick Mahomes said. “I’m thinking about the people and how they treat other people, and I was with a lot of great people this week.”

Swift offered her support to Harris shortly after the presidential debate ended Tuesday night, a potentially significant coup for the Democratic nominee given Swift’s dedicated following among young women, an important demographic for the November election. The endorsement also came after Trump’s campaign shared a collage of AI-generated images purporting to show Swift fans supporting him.

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“I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos,” Swift wrote in an Instagram post, which had been liked more than 9 million times by Wednesday afternoon.

Trump’s posts “brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter,” Swift wrote. She added that “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice.”

Mahomes declined to speak specifically about his own political beliefs, instead talking more broadly about national unity.

“You’ve seen my history. I’ve come up with people from every aspect of life, from every background,” the Chiefs quarterback said, “and the best thing about football locker rooms and kind of how I’ve grown up in baseball locker rooms is people can come together and achieve something, and achieve a common goal. We talked about it a while back. If we can do that as a nation, we can get the best out of each other, so that’s something I do every single day.”

When asked the sole debate question on climate Tuesday night, Vice President Kamala Harris said, “young people of America care deeply about this issue,” and added that the United States has increased domestic production of oil to historic highs, a fact that will contribute to global warming. Harris’ opponent, former President Donald Trump, didn’t answer the question, instead saying incorrectly that the administration of President Joe Biden and Harris is “building big auto plants in Mexico, in many cases owned by China.”

While climate was not front and center, statements made by both candidates — on fracking, energy policy and renewables — provided windows into major climate policy issues. What to know about key climate topics covered — and not covered — during Tuesday’s debate.

Fracking

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a drilling method used to extract oil and natural gas from deep underground bedrock using a highly pressurized liquid. The technique is part of what allowed the U.S. to become the world’s top producer of oil. As of March, the country produced more crude oil than any nation ever for the past six years, according to the Energy Information Administration.

On Tuesday, Trump falsely said about Harris: “If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on Day 1,” arguing that her administration would harm the state and nation’s economy. Without a law approved by Congress, a president can only ban fracking on federal lands, which make up about 2% of the state of Pennsylvania, where the debate took place.

Harris said during her 2020 campaign for president that she opposed fracking. But lately, including during the debate, Harris said she would not ban the practice if she is elected. Though Harris said her values have not changed, the discussion of fracking was notable because the drilling method does not align with efforts to switch to clean energy, which Harris also says she champions.

Oil and natural gas are fossil fuels, the burning of which produce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that warm the planet.

Energy policy

During the debate, Harris also called for investment in “diverse” sources of energy, “so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil.”

After Trump pulled the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change during his first term, the Biden-Harris administration reentered the global pact aimed at reducing emissions. The administration also set a target to slash U.S. emissions 50% by 2030 and put forth policy to accelerate clean energy projects and shift away from fossil fuels.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, passed in 2021, has provisions related to climate change, and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act is the most sweeping climate law in the nation’s history, pouring billions of dollars into the clean energy workforce that has prompted a massive buildout of manufacturing facilities. It includes production tax credits for electricity produced from renewables, including wind and solar.

But these policies alone won’t be enough for the U.S. to reach its goal of cutting carbon pollution in half, nor do they stop the fossil fuel industry from having opportunities to expand on federal lands before renewables can be built.

Renewable energies

During the debate, Trump falsely claimed that under Harris there would “be no fossil fuels” and the country would “go back to windmills.” At one point, Trump called himself a “fan” of solar but then criticized solar farms that take up large plots of land.

Solar power can be generated on a large or small scale, but even the largest solar farms use a tiny fraction of the land used for agriculture in the U.S. Experts say wind and solar, both clean energies, will be key to tackling the greenhouse gas emissions that are fueling the climate crisis, causing substantial damages to humans and ecosystems alike.

Last year, 30% of the world’s electricity was produced with renewables and the U.S. has committed to tripling renewables by 2030 in order to do its part in addressing climate change.

Some key issues not discussed

Permitting of new energy projects in the U.S. has not gotten much attention throughout the election cycle, but it’s important because it can make or break the nation’s ability to meet clean energy targets.

Wind and solar power can contribute millions of dollars in tax revenue per year to rural communities, an Associated Press analysis found. But first those projects have to get approved in local governments, a process out of the federal government’s control. Misinformation runs rampant, and communities can turn against those projects.

For instance, wind developers told the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in a January report at least a quarter of applications to build wind projects were canceled in the last five years, with local rules and community opposition cited as some of the leading reasons.

Meanwhile, during the debate, insurance only got a brief mention by Harris, as part of a dig at Trump.

“The former president has said that climate change is a hoax,” she said. “And what we know is that it is very real. You ask anyone who lives in a state who has experienced these extreme weather occurrences, who now is either being denied home insurance or it’s being jacked up.”

Residents living in areas prone to disasters like flooding and wildfires are having a hard time getting insurance at all, and federal policies may force people to pay more, an AP review found.

Electric vehicles also got little attention Tuesday, though Trump raised the idea of all critical minerals coming from China, which would include lithium and nickel. China currently dominates global EV battery production. Though EVs can run on clean electricity, mining for their batteries is an environmental and human rights concern.

Biden has created U.S. tax credits for EV purchases. While Trump has said the current administration’s efforts have resulted in an EV “mandate,” that is not true. Automakers do have to sell some electric vehicles to meet Environmental Protection Agency standards, but those regulations can also be met with more fuel-efficient gasoline-powered cars.

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Its story of economic renewal and related growing pains has been thrust into the national conversation in a presidential election year — and maliciously distorted by false rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets. Donald Trump amplified those lies during Tuesday’s nationally televised debate, exacerbating some residents’ fears about growing divisiveness in the predominantly white, blue-collar city of about 60,000.

At the city’s Haitian Community Help and Support Center on Wednesday, Rose-Thamar Joseph said many of the roughly 15,000 immigrants who arrived in the past few years were drawn by good jobs and the city’s relative affordability. But a rising sense of unease has crept in as longtime residents increasingly bristle at newcomers taking jobs at factories, driving up housing costs, worsening traffic and straining city services.

“Some of them are talking about living in fear. Some of them are scared for their life,” Joseph said.

A “Welcome To Our City” sign hangs from a parking garage downtown, where a coffee shop, bakery and boutique line Springfield’s main drag, North Fountain Street. A flag advertising “CultureFest,” the city’s annual celebration of unity through diversity, waves from a pole nearby.

Melanie Flax Wilt, a Republican commissioner in the county where Springfield is located, said she has been pushing for community and political leaders to “stop feeding the fear.”

“After the election and everybody’s done using Springfield, Ohio, as a talking point for immigration reform, we are going to be the ones here still living through the challenges and coming up with the solutions,” she said.

Ariel Dominique, executive director of the Haitian American Foundation for Democracy, said she laughed at times in recent days at the absurdity of the false claims. But seeing the comments repeated on national television by the former president was painful.

“It is so unfair and unjust and completely contrary to what we have contributed to the world, what we have contributed to this nation for so long,” Dominique said.

The falsehoods about Springfield’s Haitian immigrants were previously spread online by Trump’s running mate, JD Vance. It’s part of a timeworn American political tradition of casting immigrants as outsiders whose strange behavior is a shock to American culture.

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“This is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame,” Trump said at Tuesday’s presidential debate after repeating the falsehoods. When challenged during the debate by ABC News moderator David Muir over the false claims, Trump held firm, saying “people on television” said their dogs were eaten, but he offered no evidence.

Officials in Springfield have tried to tamp down the misinformation by saying there have been no credible or detailed reports of any pets being abducted or eaten. State leaders are trying to help address some of the real challenges the city faces.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, said Tuesday that he would send law enforcement and millions of dollars in health care resources to Springfield as it faces a surge in Haitian arrivals.

Many Haitians have come to the U.S. to flee poverty and violence. They have embraced President Joe Biden’s new and expanded legal pathways to enter, and have shunned illegal crossings, accounting for only 92 border arrests out of more than 56,000 in July, the latest data available.

The Biden administration recently announced an estimated 300,000 Haitians in the U.S. on June 3 could remain in the country at least through February 2026, with eligibility for work authorization, under a law called Temporary Protected Status to spare people from being deported to strife-torn countries..

Springfield, about 45 miles from the state capital of Columbus, suffered a steep decline in its manufacturing sector toward the end of the last century. But its downtown has been revitalized in recent years as more Haitians arrived and helped meet the demand for labor. Officials say Haitians now account for about 15% of the population.

The city was shaken last year when a minivan slammed into a school bus, killing an 11-year-old boy. The driver was a Haitian man who recently settled in the area and was driving without a valid license. During a city commission meeting on Wednesday, the boy’s parents condemned politicians’ use of their son’s death to stoke hatred.

Last week, a post on the social media platform X shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post apparently out of Springfield. The post claimed without evidence that the person’s “neighbor’s daughter’s friend” saw a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, outside a house where it claimed Haitians lived. It was accompanied by a photo of a Black man carrying what appeared to be a goose by its feet.

On Monday, Vance posted on X. “Reports now show that people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country. Where is our border czar?” he said. The next day, he posted again on X about Springfield, saying his office had received inquiries from residents who said “their neighbors’ pets or local wildlife were abducted by Haitian migrants. It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”

Long-time Springfield resident Chris Hazel, who knows the park and neighborhood where the pet and goose abductions were purported to have happened, called the claims “preposterous.”

“It reminds me of when people used to accuse others and outsiders as cannibals. It’s dehumanizing a community,” he said of the accusations against the city’s Haitian residents.

Sophia Pierrilus, the daughter of a former Haitian diplomat who moved to the Ohio capital of Columbus 15 years ago and is now an immigrant advocate, agreed, calling it all political.

“My view is that’s their way to use Haitians as a scapegoat to bring some kind of chaos in America,” she said.

With its rising population of immigrants, Springfield is hardly an outlier. So far this decade, immigration has accounted for almost three-quarters of U.S. population growth, with 2.5 million immigrants arriving in the United States between 2020 and 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Population growth is an important driver of economic growth.

“The Haitian immigrants who started moving to Springfield the last few years are the reason why the economy and the labor force has been revitalized there,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, which provides legal and social services to immigrants across the U.S.

Now, she said, Haitians in Springfield have told her that, out of fear, they are considering leaving the city.

Spagat reported from San Diego. Associated Press writer Michael Schneider in Orlando, Florida, and Noreen Nasir in New York, contributed.

Before the ceremony started, Trump and Harris shook hands and greeted each other.

President Joe Biden and vice presidential candidate Ohio Sen. JD Vance flanked the two candidates. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg appeared to make the connection between Harris and Trump on Wednesday.

The night before, the candidates sparred in their first, and possibly only, debate.

It was the first time the two political leaders had met each other.

As they walked on stage Tuesday night, Harris walked towards Trump, held out her hand and introduced herself.

“Kamala Harris,” she said. “Let’s have a good debate.”

Trump shook her hand and said, “Nice to see you. Have fun.”

The two candidates then took their spots behind their podiums.

In their debate in June, Biden and Trump did not shake hands with each other.

Wednesday morning in New York, Trump and Harris shook hands once again. It was unclear what they said to each other.

While there are already plans for a vice presidential debate, both presidential candidates have also addressed questions about future debate plans.

Here’s what to know:

Will there be another debate?

It had been anticipated that Tuesday night’s debate might be the only meet-up for Harris and Trump, but now the Democratic nominee says she’s “ready” for another one.

In a statement put out immediately following the debate’s conclusion, Harris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon said the Democrat “commanded” the stage and “is ready for a second debate.”

“Is Donald Trump?” O’Malley Dillon asked.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on a possible second meeting. Trump initially balked at the arrangements surrounding the ABC News debate, saying he had made the agreement with Biden before the president ended his reelection bid.

In the spin room shortly after the debate, Trump wouldn’t commit to the rematch the Harris campaign has already offered, saying, “I have to think about it” and that he might do it “if it was on a fair network.”

“The reason you do a second debate is if you lose, and they lost,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “But I’ll think about it.”

If Trump is doing interviews because he’s worried about his performance tonight, he isn’t showing it. He told Hannity he “thought it was a great debate” and came to the spin room because “I just felt I wanted to.”

“I was very happy with the result,” he said. “I just felt we had a great night and I’d come over here.”

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What about the vice presidential debate?

In addition to the Harris-Trump debate on Sept. 10, vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance also agreed to a debate, scheduled to be hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.

When is the election?

Voters will officially head to the polls just over a month later on Nov. 5 for Election Day, though early voting starts significantly earlier in many states.

In Illinois, early voting will begin on Sept. 26 and will run through Nov. 4, with Election Day voting held at a designated polling place from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 5.

The combative showdown saw Trump advance a number of debunked conspiracy theories related to migration, crime and voting, while Harris made misleading statements on manufacturing jobs and whether U.S. troops are in combat zones.

Here’s what Harris and Trump got right and wrong on the debate stage in Philadelphia.

Fact check: Trump calls Harris’ dad a Marxist

“Her father’s a Marxist professor in economics, and he taught her well,” Trump said.

That’s not what his students say.

In interviews, three of Professor Donald Harris’ former students, who are now economists themselves, told NBC News that they disagreed that Harris’s father was a Marxist. Professor Harris taught at Stanford University for nearly three decades until he retired in 1998, and while there, he studied Karl Marx’s economic philosophy among other different thinkers, his students recall. While Harris has spoken about her father’s influence in her early childhood, she has credited her mother for being the parent who shaped her into the person she is today.

Fact check: Did the U.S. leave $85 billion worth of military equipment in Afghanistan?

“We wouldn’t have left $85 billion worth of brand-new, beautiful military equipment behind,” Trump said.

This is false.

The Taliban did gain possession of U.S.-made military equipment when they retook power in 2021, but the $85 billion figure is grossly exaggerated. It is a rounding up of the approximately $83 billion in total assistance appropriated for the Afghan military and police during the two-decade war, including training, equipment and housing.

According to a 2022 Pentagon report, the Taliban seized much of the estimated $7.12 billion in U.S.-funded equipment that was in the hands of the former Afghan government when it collapsed, the condition of which was unknown. The report said the U.S. military had removed or destroyed almost all the major equipment it was using in Afghanistan in the months leading up to the U.S. withdrawal.

Fact check: Trump claims Harris ‘wants to confiscate your guns’

“She wants to confiscate your guns,” Trump claimed.

This is false.

Online posts have advanced a similar false claim. Harris has advocated for gun safety laws, proposing requirements for “anyone who sells more than five guns a year” to conduct background checks and for unlawful gun dealers to face penalties.

Harris responded moments later: “This business about taking everyone’s guns away? Tim Walz and I are both gun owners. We’re not taking anybody’s guns away.”

Fact check: Harris says Trump oversaw manufacturing job losses

“Donald Trump said he was going to create manufacturing jobs. He lost manufacturing jobs,” Harris said.

This needs context.

Before the onset of the pandemic, the U.S. added about 500,000 manufacturing jobs during the Trump administration. But by the time Trump left office at the height of the pandemic, the U.S. had given up virtually all those gains as a result of the worldwide economic devastation from the virus.

Meanwhile, Trump actually understated the number of manufacturing jobs lost last month: It was 24,000, not 10,000.

Fact check: Would Trump end the Russia-Ukraine war by giving up Ukrainian interests?

“I believe Donald Trump says that this war would be over within 24 hours. It’s because he would just give it up. And that’s not who we are as Americans,” Harris said.

This needs context.

Harris’ comments came during a lengthy exchange that was kicked off when Muir asked Trump, “Do you want Ukraine to win this war?”

Trump responded by saying only that “I want the war to stop. I want to save lives that are being uselessly, people being killed by the millions.” He added that “I will get it settled” because “what I’ll do is I’ll speak to one, I’ll speak to the other, I’ll get them together.”

Harris responded with the above quotation and brought up that the Biden administration had helped bring dozens of countries together to support Ukraine’s defense.

“Because of our support, because of the air defense, the ammunition, the artillery … that we have provided, Ukraine stands as an independent and free country. If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”

Trump hasn’t publicly discussed what his specific plan to end the war would be. The Washington Post reported in April that the plan was essentially a land-for-peace deal.

Citing people who discussed the plan with Trump and his advisers, the Post reported that Trump would plan to push Ukraine to hand over control of Crimea and the Donbas region to Russia in any future deal, which would effectively formalize the gains Putin made during his illegal invasion. In exchange, the Post reported, Putin would stop the war. The report attracted criticism across the political spectrum and from Kyiv, with many lawmakers and international figures saying that the deal amounted to appeasement.

Regardless of whether such a plan would ever bear fruit, Harris’ latest comments build on the narrative that Trump continues to seek cozy ties with Moscow. Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Trump praised Putin as “genius” and “savvy” for declaring his intention to invade. 

In addition, it’s important to note that Trump did not say in his direct response to Muir that he wanted Ukraine to win in the war. He said only that he wanted the war to stop.

And even if Trump won and tried to stop the war, U.S. and European governments say Russia has shown no sign it is genuinely interested in any peace negotiations.

Fact check: Harris says no U.S. military members are on active duty in a combat zone

“And as of today, there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone, in any war zone around the world, the first time this century,” Harris said.

This is false.

While Congress hasn’t formally declared a war in decades, American troops are certainly in combat zones across the world.

They’re serving in places like Iraq and Syria, where they work with local troops to fight terrorist networks. And they also conduct missions in both places — we saw that in Iraq’s Anbar province in late August, where an operation killed 15 ISIS fighters and saw two U.S. soldiers medevaced for injuries (and five more injured). And also last month in Syria, a drone attack injured eight U.S. service members.

U.S. troops are also in Somalia and other parts of Africa where they support local troops fighting terror groups, and they’ve been shooting down Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea.

Fact check: Trump claims he saved Obamacare

“Do I save it and make it as good as it can be, or do I let it rot, and I saved it,” Trump said.

This is false.

During Trump’s term in office, he made several attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. While those efforts were unsuccessful, Republicans in Congress did repeal its individual mandate, which required people to have health insurance or face fines.

Fact check: Did Trump’s election cases fail on standing?

“No judge looked at it. … They said we didn’t have standing. That’s the other thing. They said we didn’t have standing. Can you imagine a system where a person in an election doesn’t have standing? The president of the United States doesn’t have standing? That’s how we lost if you look at the facts, and I’d love to have you do a special on it. I’ll show you Georgia, and I’ll show you Wisconsin, and I’ll show you Pennsylvania,” Trump said.

This is false.

Trump falsely claimed that the more than 50 lawsuits brought by his supporters claiming widespread fraud were rejected by judges because the president did not have legal “standing.”

The majority of the lawsuits were rejected because of a lack of evidence of voter fraud, a finding that Attorney General William Barr supported. Judges in Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania rejected the claims of widespread voter fraud. The Supreme Court rejected Trump’s appeal due to a lack of standing. There is extensive proof that the 2020 election was not marred by fraud. 

Fact check: Is ‘migrant crime’ happening at high levels?

“They’ve destroyed the fabric of our country. Millions of people let in and all over the world, crime is down all over the world, except here, crime here is up and through the roof, despite their fraudulent statements that they made, crime in this country’s through the roof, and we have a new form of crime. It’s called migrant crime. I like that. It’s happening at levels nobody thought possible,” Trump said.

This is misleading.

The rate of violent and property crimes dropped precipitously in the first three months of 2024 compared with the same period last year, according to quarterly statistics released yesterday by the FBI known as the Uniform Crime Report. The murder rate fell by 26.4%, reported rapes decreased by 25.7%, robberies fell by 17.8%, aggravated assault fell by 12.5%, and the overall violent crime rate went down by 15.2%, the statistics indicate.

Pressed about the FBI crime rates’ contradicting him, Trump claimed the FBI didn’t “include the cities with the worst crime; it was a fraud.” And while it’s true that some cities data is not included in the FBI crime data, city-level data shows similar trends. For example, New York City data compiled by the police department indicates that crime was down overall in the first quarter of 2024 there, too.

Under Biden, over 112,000 migrants with criminal backgrounds have been apprehended at the border, compared with over 63,000 under Trump. The number of people who are on the terrorist watchlist stopped at the border has largely stayed the same, with an estimated 1,400 encounters under Trump and 1,800 under Biden. But the government has acknowledged the difficulty of vetting migrants coming from countries that won’t share criminal history data with the U.S., and investigators have opened more than 100 investigations into the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that has spread into the U.S.

Fact check: Are noncitizens being encouraged to vote?

“We have to have borders, and we have to have good elections. Our elections are bad. 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,” Trump said.

This is false.

It is a crime to register or vote as a noncitizen in all state and federal elections, though Washington, D.C., and a handful of municipalities in California, Maryland and Vermont allow noncitizen voting in local elections. Few people break those laws.

There’s no evidence of “people” trying to get undocumented migrants to vote, either.

Fact check: Trump says ‘fossil fuel will be dead’ under Harris

“If she won the election, the day after that election, go back to destroying our country and oil will be dead. Fossil fuel will be dead. We’ll go back to windmills, and we’ll go back to solar, where they need a whole desert to get some energy to come out. You ever see a solar plant? By the way, I’m a big fan of solar, but they take 400-500 acres of desert soil,” Trump said.

This is false.

Oil and gas production is at an all-time high under the Biden administration, and the U.S. is the world’s top oil producer.

Meanwhile, wind and solar power are rapidly expanding across the country. The U.S. Energy Information Association projects the amount of new solar power coming online will grow by 75% from 2023 to 2025. New wind power is also increasing by 11%.

In the context of cost of living for Americans, solar and onshore wind are also significantly cheaper sources of energy than fossil fuel. Solar power, on average, costs nearly half the price of fossil gas energy, according to the EIA.

Fact check: Did Trump threaten there would be a ‘bloodbath’ if he doesn’t win the 2024 election?

“Donald Trump, the candidate, has said, in this election, there will be a bloodbath if this and the outcome of this election is not to his liking. Let’s turn the page on this. Let’s not go back. Let’s chart a course for the future and not go backwards to the past,” Harris said.

This is true, though Trump says differently.

During the debate, Trump hit back at Harris, saying: “Let me just it was a different term, and it was a term that related to energy, because they have destroyed our energy business. … That story has been, as you would say, debunked.”

Harris was referring to comments Trump made at a rally in Andalia, Ohio, in March.

At the rally, Trump vowed there would be a “bloodbath” if he’s not elected in November — comments that came during a broader tirade that included his referring to the possibility of an increasing trade war with China over auto manufacturing.

At the Ohio rally, Trump said, “If you’re listening, President Xi — and you and I are friends — but he understands the way I deal. Those big monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now … you’re going to not hire Americans and you’re going to sell the cars to us, no. We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected.”

“Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it,” he added. “It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it. But they’re not going to sell those cars. They’re building massive factories.”

Later, Trump said, “If this election isn’t won, I’m not sure that you’ll ever have another election in this country.”

Trump has continued to refuse to acknowledge that he lost the 2020 election. The doubt he cast on the results of the race helped sow the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

In response to the comments in March, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told NBC News at the time that “Biden’s policies will create an economic bloodbath for the auto industry and autoworkers.”

Fact check: Who is responsible for the botched troop exit from Afghanistan?

“They didn’t fire anybody having to do with Afghanistan and the Taliban and the 13 people who were just killed, viciously and violently killed. And I got to know the parents and the family. They didn’t fire, they should have fired all those generals, all those top people, because that was one of the most incompetently handled situations anybody has ever seen,” Trump said.

This is true, but additional context is needed.

It’s true that no one in the Biden administration was held accountable for the final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, a chaotic event that resulted in 13 deaths.

But Trump and Biden share responsibility for the withdrawal and its consequences. Both publicly supported pulling U.S. troops out and rejected advice from military commanders to keep a small U.S. force on the ground.

Trump and his supporters have tried to solely blame Biden and Harris for the chaotic pullout. The Biden administration, in a National Security Council report last year, tried to pin most of the blame on the Trump administration, arguing that Biden was “severely constrained” by Trump’s decisions.

In February 2020, the Trump administration negotiated an agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, reduced U.S. troops levels from 12,500 to 2,500, freed 5,000 Taliban prisoners in a prisoner exchange and required all U.S. troops to withdraw by May 1, 2021.

In return, the U.S received an ambiguous pledge from the Taliban not to allow Afghanistan to become a base for terrorist attacks against the U.S. and its allies. 

Trump then scaled back U.S. troop levels over the course of 2020 from about 13,000 to 2,500 as part of the deal, even though the Taliban did not keep its commitment to reduce violence and it maintained ties with Al Qaeda. Republican lawmakers in November expressed alarm over the troop reductions, with Sen. Marco Rubio, of Florida, warning of a “Saigon-type situation.”

The February 2020 Doha agreement and the troop drawdown presented Biden with difficult choices. Some administration officials were concerned that if the U.S. chose to renege on the Doha agreement, the administration would have to deploy additional U.S. troops in Afghanistan to bolster the small contingent remaining. That, in turn, risked triggering an intensified war with the Taliban.

The head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, recommended keeping a small force of 2,500 in place to counter the terrorist threat from the country and to support the Afghan army. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley, agreed with the recommendation.

Biden eventually moved up the timeline for full troop withdrawal to Aug. 31 (from Sept. 11) as the Taliban made dramatic advances across the country.

In August, Taliban forces seized Kabul without a fight, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country amid chaotic scenes at the Kabul airport. Desperate Afghans climbed onto the wings of a U.S. cargo plane and fell from the sky after it took off. 

On Aug. 26, a bombing at the airport’s Abbey Gate during the final days of withdrawal killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans and wounded many more people. The attack was carried out by ISIS. 

Fact check: Trump says Harris ‘wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison’

“Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison,” Trump said.

This needs context.

CNN recently reported that in her response to an American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire in 2019, Harris said transgender people who rely on the state for care, including federal prisoners and detainees, should have access to gender transition treatment. The Harris campaign did not answer questions from CNN on whether she still supports that position.

Fact check: Trump says Democrats support ‘execution after birth’

“You can look at the governor of West Virginia, the previous governor of West Virginia — not the current governor, who is doing an excellent job, but the governor before — he said the baby will be born and we will decide what to do with the baby. In other words, we’ll execute it. And that’s why I did that, because that predominates, because they’re radical. The Democrats are radical. … Her vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth is execution no longer abortion because the baby is born OK, and that’s not OK with me,” Trump said.

This is false.

While some Democrats, including Walz, support broad access to abortion regardless of gestation age, infanticide is illegal, and no Democrats advocate for it. What’s more, just 1% of abortions are performed after 21 weeks’ gestation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and they are typically due to serious medical causes.

This is a frequent falsehood from Trump dating to 2019, referring to something former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, said on a radio program. NBC News debunked the claim then, reporting that Northam’s remarks were about resuscitating infants with severe deformities or nonviable pregnancies. 

Asked what happens when a woman who is going into labor desires a third-trimester abortion, Northam noted that such procedures occur only in cases of severe deformities or nonviable pregnancies. He said that in those scenarios, “the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

Fact check: Are pets being harmed by migrants?

This is false.

Baseless rumors have spread on social media for days claiming that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are abducting and eating pets. Most of the rumors involve Springfield, Ohio, which has a large number of Haitian immigrants, but police there knocked down the stories yesterday in a statement saying they hadn’t seen any documented examples.

“There have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” the statement said.

Republicans, including Vance, have pointed to the claims as evidence that immigrants are causing chaos. Vance, though, hedged somewhat in a statement on X earlier today, saying, “It’s possible, of course, that all of these rumors will turn out to be false.”

Immigration is a potent subject in the presidential face. In an NBC News poll in April, 22% of voters put immigration and the border as the most important issue facing the country, second only to inflation and the cost of living at 23%.

John Kirby, the White House’s national security spokesperson, denounced the claims about Haitians in Ohio as a dangerous conspiracy theory that could inspire anti-immigrant violence.

“There will be people that believe it no matter how ludicrous and stupid it is, and they might act on that kind of information and act on it in a way where somebody could get hurt,” he told reporters today.

Fact check: Have the jobs created under the Biden administration been ‘bounce-back’ jobs?

“[T]he only jobs they got were bounce-back jobs. These were jobs bounce back, and it bounced back, and it went to their benefit, but I was the one that created them,” Trump said.

This is false.

The U.S. regained all the jobs lost during the Covid-19 pandemic in June 2022. Since then, more than 6 million jobs have been created.

Fact check: Trump says inflation is ‘probably the worst in our nation’s history’

“Look, we’ve had a terrible economy because inflation has— which is really known as a country buster. It breaks up countries. We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before, probably the worst in our nation’s history,” Trump said.

This is false.

Inflation is at 2.9%, the lowest it has been since March 2021, although the rate did reach a peak of 9.1% during June 2022 amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Inflation was at that level at multiple points of the Trump presidency, as well, in June and July 2018.

Fact check: Trump says he has ‘nothing to do with Project 2025’

“I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That’s out there. I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it purposely. I’m not going to read it. This was a group of people that got together. They came up with some ideas, I guess, some good, some bad, but it makes no difference,” Trump said.

This is misleading.

Trump has spent weeks trying to push back against associations with Project 2025, a 900-page policy wish list put out by the Heritage Foundation.

It’s true that Trump has disavowed some of the policies in the document and did not write it, but many of his allies and former aides are behind it and have advanced the positions proposed in it.

The Heritage Foundation also had significant influence in the Trump administration. In 2018, it boasted that Trump and his administration “embraced nearly two-thirds of the policy recommendations” it advanced in a similar document. 

Fact check: Are 21 million migrants coming into the U.S. monthly?

“But when you look at what she’s done to our country, and when you look at these millions and millions of people that are pouring into our country monthly, where it’s I believe 21 million people, not the 15 that people say,” Trump said.

This is false.

According to statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, there have been an estimated 10 million encounters across U.S. land borders during the Biden administration. In Jul, CBP recorded 170,273 national encounters between and at U.S. ports of entry. The most national encounters recorded since the start of FY24 has been 370,887.

Fact check: Would Trump tax cuts create a $5 trillion deficit?

“My opponent, on the other hand, his plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations, which will result in $5 trillion to America’s deficit. My opponent has a plan that I call the Trump sales tax, which would be a 20% tax on everyday goods that you rely on to get through the month. Economists have said that that Trump sales tax would actually result for middle-class families in about $4,000 more a year,” Harris said.

This is true.

A May report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that extending the Trump tax cuts for 10 years would add $4.6 trillion to the federal deficit.

Harris’ reference to Trump’s “sales tax” actually refers to his proposal to raise tariffs on all nearly all imported basic goods by 10% and by up to 60% on basic goods imported from China. Economists, including from the left-leaning Center for American Progress, have said those levels of tariffs would pass costs on to consumers, amounting to about $3,900 in additional costs for an average middle-class family.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Trump glares angrily ahead as Harris stares him down during tense debate
• Trump pushes baseless claim about immigrants ‘eating the pets’
• Sarah McBride is one step closer to becoming the first trans lawmaker in Congress

Heading into the debate, Harris appeared to have more to gain — and more to lose. A New York Times/Siena poll found that 28% said they “need to learn more about Kamala Harris,” compared to just 9% who said the same about Trump. Overall, Trump led Harris by 1 point among likely voters, with 5% unsure or not backing either.

The debate covered a wide range of issues and featured a series of intense exchanges between the two bitter rivals. Harris presented herself as a pragmatic problem-solver and diminished Trump as a wannabe dictator who can’t keep his rally crowds engaged. Trump attacked Harris as a radical and frequently returned to his theme of criticizing migration, sometimes veering into conspiracy theories.

Here are five key takeaways from the debate.

Harris leans in quickly on lowering costs

Harris used the first question to lean into her plan for an “opportunity economy,” seeking to cut into Trump’s advantage on the issue with swing voters by presenting herself as the candidate of the middle class while calling Trump a corporate tax-cutter.

“I was raised as a middle-class kid, and I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America,” Harris said. “We know that we have a shortage of homes and housing, and the cost of housing is too expensive for far too many people. We know that young families need support to raise their children, and I intend on extending a tax cut for those families of $6,000, which is the largest child tax credit that we have given in a long time, so that those young families can afford to buy a crib, buy a car seat, buy clothes for their children.”

Trump for his part, blasted the Biden-Harris economy, saying, “I’ve never seen a worse period of time.” He also defended his tariff plans and called Harris “a Marxist,” even as he accused her of copying his policies: “I was going to send her a MAGA hat.”

Both candidates seek the mantle of change

In the opening minutes of the debate, both rivals sought to claim the mantle of change in a country full of voters who are hungry for it.

“In this debate tonight, you’re going to hear from the same old, tired playbook: a bunch of lies, grievances and name-calling,” Harris said of Trump. “What you’re going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025, that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected.”

Harris returned to that message later in the debate: “The American people are exhausted with the same entire playbook.” Harris went back to it later when criticizing Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot.

“Let’s turn the page on this. Let’s not go back,” she said.

Trump, meanwhile, sought to portray Harris as a continuation of President Joe Biden on immigration and the economy.

On migrants coming into the United States illegally, Trump said, “These are the people that she and Biden led into our country, and they’re destroying our country. They’re dangerous.”

And on the economy, Trump said: “She copied Biden’s plan. And it’s like four sentences. Run, spot, run.”

Trump attacks as Harris defends policy shifts

A significant weakness for Harris in her 2024 campaign has been the left-wing positions she took as a Democratic presidential primary candidate in 2020 that she has since abandoned or backtracked from — such as banning fracking, a mandatory buyback of semi-automatic firearms and decriminalizing border crossings. She was asked about her evolution again.

“I made that very clear on 2020 I will not ban fracking,” Harris said. “I have not banned fracking as vice president. In fact, I was the tie-breaking vote on the inflation Reduction Act which opened new leases for fracking.”

Harris added, “My values have not changed.”

Trump sought to capitalize.

“She wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison. This is a radical left liberal that would do this. She wants to confiscate your guns and she will never allow fracking in Pennsylvania,” Trump said. “If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on day one.”

Trump dodges on vetoing federal abortion ban

Trump and Harris engaged in a lengthy clash on abortion, during which the former president declined twice to say whether he would veto a federal abortion ban if Congress passed one.

“Well, I won’t have to,” Trump replied. He said he’s “not signing” such a ban because there’s “no reason to,” arguing that “everybody” is happy with the termination of Roe v. Wade.

When told that his vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance, said he would veto such a ban, Trump contradicted Vance. the Ohio senator made his comments recently on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”

“Well, I didn’t discuss it with JD, in all fairness. JD — and I don’t mind if he has a certain view, but I think he was speaking to me,” he said, arguing that Congress won’t pass any major abortion bill.

“I pledge to you: when Congress passes a bill to put back in place the protections of Roe v. Wade as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it in to law,” she said. “But understand, if Donald Trump were to be reelected, he will sign a national abortion ban.”

Harris baits Trump into missed opportunities

Harris came into the debate with the hope of rattling Trump, and she appeared to succeed at some moments, baiting the president into a defensive posture rather than highlighting his strongest issue: concerns about inflation and the cost of living.

She attacked him on abortion rights, linked him to the right-wing policy blueprint Project 2025, highlighted his praise for Chinese President Xi Jinping around the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Both times, he jumped in to defend himself. She invited Americans to watch a Trump rally.

“He talks about fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter. He will talk about ‘windmills cause cancer.’ And what you will also notice is that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom,” Harris said, looking into the camera.

That didn’t sit well with Trump, who said he has “the most incredible rallies in the history of politics” and went on a tangent by citing a debunked conspiracy theory about some migrants eating pets. “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats,” Trump said.

Trump bashes Biden, sparking pithy Harris reply

Trump’s performance included a wide sprinkling of attacks on Biden, who dropped out after his disastrous late-June debate showing against Trump. He criticized Biden’s handling of classified documents, knocked him for opposing the Keystone XL pipeline and called the Biden’s administration “the most divisive presidency in the history of our country.”

“Where is our president? We don’t even know if he’s the president,” Trump said toward the end of the debate. “They threw him out of a campaign like a dog. We don’t even know. Is he our president? We have a president that doesn’t know he’s alive.”

Harris replied, “It is important to remind the former president: You’re not running against Joe Biden, you are running against me.”

When Trump later said, “She is Biden,” Harris responded: “Clearly, I am not Joe Biden. And I am certainly not Donald Trump.”

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

• Trump glares angrily ahead as Harris stares him down during tense debate
• Trump pushes baseless claim about immigrants ‘eating the pets’
• Sarah McBride is one step closer to becoming the first trans lawmaker in Congress

She signed the post “Taylor Swift, Childless Cat Lady,” in reference to resurfaced JD Vance’s statements that have become a rallying cry among some women voters, and shared a photo of her with one of her well-known cats.

Swift’s political leanings have been the subject of speculation for weeks, heightened after former President Donald Trump re-shared a fake AI image to his Truth Social account suggesting he had her support.

Swift previously gave her support to President Joe Biden and Harris during the 2020 presidential race.

“I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the 2024 Presidential Election. I’m voting for @kamalaharris because she fights for the rights and causes I believe need a warrior to champion them. I think she is a steady-handed, gifted leader and I believe we can accomplish so much more in this country if we are led by calm and not chaos. I was so heartened and impressed by her selection of running mate @timwalz, who has been standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, IVF, and a woman’s right to her own body for decades,” Swift wrote.

Swift, 34, also told her 283 million Instagram followers that she had “I’ve done my research, and I’ve made my choice. Your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make,” before calling on them to make sure to register to vote.

In late August, Trump posted “I accept!” on his Truth Social account, along with a carousel of images that appeared to be of Swift, and at least some of which appeared to be AI-generated.

Swift seemed to confirm this in her post.

“Recently I was made aware that AI of ‘me’ falsely endorsing Donald Trump’s presidential run was posted to his site. It really conjured up my fears around AI, and the dangers of spreading misinformation. It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth,” she wrote.

The Swift endorsement came as a surprise, two Harris campaign officials told NBC News.

One official said this added to what they view as a “decisive victory” tonight and speaks to Harris’ ability to attract support.

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The Democratic vice president moved to get under the skin of the former Republican president, provoking him with reminders about the 2020 election loss that he still denies and delivering derisive asides at his other false claims. Harris’ needling prompted Trump to launch into the sort of freewheeling personal attacks and digressions that his advisers and supporters have tried to steer him away from.

The high-pressure matchup after a tumultuous campaign summer offered Americans their most expansive look at a campaign that’s been dramatically changed just hours before the first early presidential ballots will be distributed.

The vice president moved to far more effectively press the Democratic case against Trump than President Joe Biden did in June, presaging a more contentious and competitive race now that Harris is the one taking on Trump.

The pair outlined sharply opposite visions of where the nation is and where they intend to take it if elected. Harris promised tax cuts aimed at the middle class and said she would push to restore a federally guaranteed right to abortion overturned by the Supreme Court two years ago. Trump said his proposed tariffs would help the U.S. stop being cheated by allies on trade and said he would work to swiftly end the Russia-Ukraine war, even if it meant Ukraine didn’t achieve victory on the battlefield.

Harris at times shook her head derisively as Trump spoke, occasionally staring at him with a hand on her chin, while Trump seemed to avoid looking toward the Democrat. Trump hewed closely to his rally talking points and the familiar attacks that have proven popular with his Republican base but his advisers worry don’t appeal to a broader cross section of voters.

In one moment, Harris turned to Trump and said that as vice president, she had spoken to foreign leaders, “And they say you’re a disgrace.”

Trump again denied his loss to President Joe Biden four years ago, when his efforts to overturn the result inspired the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.

“Donald Trump was fired by 81 million people,” Harris said, “So let’s be clear about that. And clearly he is having a very difficult time processing that.”

Trump in turn tried to link Harris to Biden, questioning why she hadn’t acted on her proposed ideas while serving as vice president. “Why hasn’t she done it?” he said. Trump also focused his attacks on Harris over her assignment by Biden to deal with the root causes of illegal migration.

The Republican pledged anew to deport millions of people in the U.S. illegally and warned that Harris was “worse than Biden” and her policies would turn the U.S. into Venezuela.

He repeatedly dismissed her and Biden as weak, and cited the praise of Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán to show that he is a widely respected by leaders around the world, saying Orbán calls him the “most feared person.”

Saying it’s “time to turn the page,” Harris delivered an appeal to Republicans and independents turned off by Trump’s style and his efforts four years ago to overturn the 2020 presidential election, saying there’s a place in her campaign for them “to stand for country, to stand for our democracy, to stand for rule of law and to end the chaos.”

Trump twice declined to say that it was in the best interest of the U.S. for Ukraine to win its war against Russia. Harris said it was an example of why America’s NATO allies were thankful he was no longer in office, as she and Biden have sent tens of billions of dollars to help Kyiv fend off Russia’s invasion.

As the former president made a series of false claims about migrants, Harris seemed to smirk as he said that migrants are “taking jobs that are occupied right now by African Americans and Hispanics.”

“Talk about extreme,” Harris responded, when Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims that immigrants in Ohio are eating their neighbors’ dogs and cats.

The candidates met in a small, blue-lit amphitheater converted into a television studio, with no live audience, meaning there was no rowdy applause, cheers or jeers. The intimate setting — with the candidates’ lecterns positioned less than 10 feet from each other — belied the contentious debate to follow.

As Harris seemed to try to interject during one of his responses, Trump replied, “I’m talking now, sound familiar?” harkening back to a moment when shut down an interruption from then-Vice President Mike Pence.

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Harris sharply criticized Trump for the state of the economy and democracy when he left office, as the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the nation and after his supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a bid to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“What we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess,” Harris said. She opened her answer by saying she expects voters to hear “a bunch of lies, grievances and name calling” from her GOP opponent during their 90-minute debate.

Trump, meanwhile, quickly went after Harris for abandoning some of her past liberal positions and said: “She’s going to my philosophy now. In fact, I was going to send her a MAGA hat.” Harris smiled broadly and laughed.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.”

As the debate opened, Harris walked up to Trump’s lectern to introduce herself, marking the first time the two had ever met. “Kamala Harris,” she said, extending her hand to Trump, who received it in a handshake — the first presidential debate handshake since the 2016 campaign.

Harris, in zeroing in on one of Trump’s biggest electoral vulnerabilities, laid the end of national abortion rights at Trump’s feet for his role in appointing three U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, leaving more than 20 states in the country with what she called “Trump abortion bans.”

Harris gave one of her most impassioned answers as she described the ways women have been denied abortion care and other emergency care and said Trump would assign a national abortion ban if he wins.

Trump declared it “a lie,” and said, “I’m not signing a ban and there’s no reason to sign a ban.”

The Republican has said he wants the issue left to the states.

Harris used a question about her plans to improve the economy by saying she would extend the tax cut for families with children and a tax deduction for small businesses while attacking Trump’s plans to impose broad tariffs as a “sales tax” on goods that the American people will ultimately pay.

Trump was stone-faced during her answer but retorted: “I have no sales tax. That’s in incorrect statement. She knows that.”

Trump, who is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House continued to call Harris a “Marxist,” and said “Everyone knows she’s a Marxist.”

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

“I read where she was not Black,” Trump said when asked about comments questioning Harris’ race, and then he added a minute later, “and then I read that she was Black.” He seemed to suggest her race was a choice, saying twice, “That’s up to her.”

“I think it’s a tragedy that we have someone who wants to be president who has consistently over the course of his career attempted to use race to divide the American people,” Harris responded.

Harris said Trump has a long history of racial division, going back to when his family’s company was investigated for refusing to rent to black people decades ago. She also mentioned that he called for the death penalty for the “Central Park Five,” who were falsely accused of rape, and spread false “birther” theories about President Barack Obama.

“I think the American people want better than that, want better than this,” she said, nodding toward Trump.

Harris hit Trump on one of his biggest sources of pride, his freewheeling campaign rallies. Harris noted how at the events, Trump, as he meanders through subjects, will sometimes muse on “fictional characters like Hannibal Lecter” and whether “windmills cause cancer,” and then said that if you watch his events “you will also notice that people start leaving his rallies early out of exhaustion and boredom.”

“The one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. Your needs, your dreams and your desires.”

Trump tried to use his next question to respond by accusing Harris of having no one attending her rallies except the people that he claimed, without evidence, that she has bused in and paid to be there.

“She can’t talk about that. People don’t leave my rallies. We have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics,” he said.

In rapid fashion after the June 27 debate between Trump and Biden, the incumbent bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

The debate subjected Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

Trump at one point launched into an attack on Biden, questioning his mental acuity by making the claim that Biden “doesn’t even know he’s alive.”

Harris quickly tried to turn it around to make Trump look less than sharp.

“First of all, I think it’s important to remind the former president, you’re not running against Joe Biden. You’re running against me,” she said.

The senator from Ohio, as well as other Republican lawmakers and several conservative commentators, have in recent days asserted without evidence that the arrival of thousands of immigrants from Haiti had created chaos in Springfield. 

In a post on X, Vance wrote Monday that “people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn’t be in this country.” 

The Springfield Police Division said in a statement that they were aware of the “rumors” and had no information to support them. 

“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” the police said in a statement emailed to NBC News. 

They added that they had no information to support similar assertions about immigrants squatting or disrupting traffic. 

“Additionally, there have been no verified instances of immigrants engaging in illegal activities such as squatting or littering in front of residents’ homes. Furthermore, no reports have been made regarding members of the immigrant community deliberately disrupting traffic,” the police said. 

After NBC News asked the Vance campaign about the lack of evidence for his claim, a spokesperson said that the senator had received “a high volume of calls and emails over the past several weeks from concerned citizens in Springfield” and that “his tweet is based on what he is hearing from them.” 

The spokesperson did not say, however, whether any of those calls or emails had included evidence of violence against pets, and did not offer proof of Vance’s statements.

There is a long history of conservative politicians and pundits denigrating Haitian immigrants in particular, including with baseless allegations of cannibalism, according to historians who have studied the former French colony. 

Viles Dorsainvil, president of the Haitian Community Help and Support Center, a nonprofit organization in Springfield, condemned the recent rumors as uninformed and racist. 

“It’s just bigotry, discrimination and racism,” he said. “There is a group of people who have been fabricating some news just to denigrate Haitians.” 

Dorsainvil said his organization helps immigrants with job applications, legal support and more. He added that Haitians have moved to Ohio because of the gang conflict and political turmoil in their home country. 

“They are looking for a place to raise their family and look for a job. But it happens that the city has not been prepared for the influx of Haitians coming here,” he said. 

The false claims about threats to pets began going viral on social media over the weekend, fueled in part by a fourth-hand story that appeared to come from a Facebook group focused on local crime in Springfield. 

The group was set to private on Monday, but according to screenshots posted on X, someone in the Facebook group posted that “my neighbor informed me that her daughters friend had lost her cat.” The poster went on to describe Haitians allegedly taking the cat for food. 

Conservative pundit Charlie Kirk posted a screenshot of the Facebook post Sunday on X, and within 24 hours, it had received more than 3 million views. 

The rumor was picked up by other right-wing commentators, including Jack Posobiec, who posted about it on X more than 30 times Sunday and Monday. Others echoed the allegations, including X owner Elon Musk, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. 

“Please vote for Trump so Haitian immigrants don’t eat us,” Cruz wrote on X, as a caption on a photo of cats. 

By midday Monday, Haitians were the No. 1 trending topic in the U.S. on X. 

In his post on X, Vance attributed his information about pets to unspecified “reports” and suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris was to blame for Haitian immigrants’ “generally causing chaos all over Springfield, Ohio.” In 2021, President Joe Biden tasked Harris with tackling the “root causes” of migration. 

Vance also asserted without evidence that the Haitian population in question is made up of illegal immigrants. 

A Springfield city website says that’s not true. “Haitian immigrants are here legally, under the Immigration Parole Program,” the website says, referring to a federal humanitarian program for migrants. 

Representatives for Kirk, Posobiec, Musk, Cruz and Jordan did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

X and Meta, the parent company of Facebook, also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

As many as 20,000 Haitian immigrants have arrived in the Springfield area in recent years, and although they’ve helped to revitalize the city, there have been protests, The New York Times reported this month. In May, a jury found a Haitian immigrant guilty of causing a school bus crash that killed an 11-year-old boy.

NBC News’ Alec Hernández contributed.

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When they do, they’ll both be asked adhere to a set of rules the candidates agreed upon last week.

As the debate gets underway, here’s a look at what to expect.

Here’s a look at what to expect:

What time is the debate tonight?

The first presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

It will last for an estimated 90 minutes.

List of debate rules

The parameters now in place for the Sept. 10 debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

According to ABC News, the candidates will stand behind lecterns, will not make opening statements and will not be allowed to bring notes during the 90-minute debate. David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the event.

“Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion,” the network noted.

A Harris campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning around the debate, said a candidate who repeatedly interrupts will receive a warning from a moderator, and both candidates’ microphones may be unmuted if there is significant crosstalk so the audience can understand what’s happening.

After a virtual coin flip held Tuesday and won by Trump, the GOP nominee opted to offer the final closing statement, while Harris chose the podium on the right side of viewers’ screens. There will be no audience, written notes or any topics or questions shared with campaigns or candidates in advance, the network said.

Here’s the full list of rules:

– The debate will be 90 minutes with two commercial breaks.

– The two seated moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, will be the only people asking questions.

– A coin flip was held virtually on Tuesday, Sept. 3, to determine podium placement and order of closing statements; former President Donald Trump won the coin toss and chose to select the order of statements. The former president will offer the last closing statement, and Vice President Harris selected the right podium position on screen (stage left).

– Candidates will be introduced by the moderators.

– The candidates enter upon introduction from opposite sides of the stage; the incumbent party will be introduced first.

– No opening statements; closing statements will be two minutes per candidate.

– Candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate.

– Props or prewritten notes are not allowed onstage.

– No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.

– Candidates will be given a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.

– Candidates will have two-minute answers to questions, two-minute rebuttals, and one extra minute for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses.

– Candidates’ microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when the time belongs to another candidate.

– Candidates will not be permitted to ask questions of each other.

– Campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks.

– Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion.

– There will be no audience in the room.

Trump reluctantly agreed to the mute function when he faced Biden in June, but after that debate, his team determined it was a net positive if voters did not hear from the Republican former president while his opponent was speaking. Harris’ team was pushing to return to a normal format without mute buttons.

Are other debates planned?

Though the September debate is currently the only debate currently planned between Harris and Trump, Harris’ campaign said that a potential October debate was contingent on Trump attending the Sept. 10 debate.

In addition to the planned Harris-Trump debate on Sept. 10, vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance also agreed to a debate, scheduled to be hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.

When is Election Day?

Voters will officially head to the polls just over a month later on Nov. 5 for Election Day, though early voting starts significantly earlier in many states.

In Illinois, early voting will begin on Sept. 26 and will run through Nov. 4, with Election Day voting held at a designated polling place from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 5.

The event, at 9 p.m. Eastern in Philadelphia, will offer Americans their most detailed look at a campaign that’s dramatically changed since the last debate in June. In rapid fashion, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race after his disastrous performance, Trump survived an assassination attempt and bothsides chose their running mates.

Harris is intent on demonstrating that she can press the Democratic case against Trump better than Biden did. Trump, in turn, is trying to paint the vice president as an out-of-touch liberal while trying to win over voters skeptical he should return to the White House.

Trump, 78, has struggled to adapt to Harris, 59, who is the first woman, Black person and person of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. The Republican former president has at times resorted to invoking racial and gender stereotypes, frustrating allies who want Trump to focus instead on policy differences with Harris.

The vice president, for her part, will try to claim a share of credit for the Biden administration’s accomplishments while also addressing its low moments and explaining her shifts away from more liberal positions she took in the past.

The debate will subject Harris, who has sat for only a single formal interview in the past six weeks, to a rare moment of sustained questioning.

“If she performs great, it’s going to be a nice surprise for the Democrats and they’ll rejoice,” said Ari Fleischer, a Republican communications strategist and former press secretary to President George W. Bush. “If she flops, like Joe Biden did, it could break this race wide open. So there’s more riding on it.”

Decision 2024 Sep 9

When is the 2024 presidential debate? How to watch the Trump, Harris debate

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Tim Hogan, who led Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s debate preparations in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, said Harris, a former California attorney general, would bring a “prosecutor’s instincts to the debate stage.”

“That is a very strong quality in that setting: having someone who knows how to land a punch and how to translate it,” Hogan said.

The first early ballots of the presidential race will go out just hours after the debate, hosted by ABC News. Absentee ballots are set to be sent out beginning Wednesday in Alabama.

Trump plans to hit Harris as too liberal

Trump and his campaign have spotlighted far-left positions she took during her failed 2020 presidential bid. He’s been assisted in his informal debate prep sessions by Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate who tore into Harris during their primary debates.

Harris has sought to defend her shifts away from liberal causes to more moderate stances on fracking, expanding Medicare for all and mandatory gun buyback programs — and even backing away from her position that plastic straws should be banned — as pragmatism, insisting that her “values remain the same.” Her campaign on Monday published a page on its website listing her positions on key issues.

The former president has argued a Harris presidency is a threat to the safety of the country, highlighting that Biden tapped her to address the influx of migrants as the Republican once again makes dark warnings about immigration and those in the country illegally central to his campaign. He has sought to portray a Harris presidency as the continuation of Biden’s still-unpopular administration, particularly his economic record, as voters still feel the bite of inflation even as it has cooled in recent months.

Trump’s team insist his tone won’t be any different facing a female opponent.

“President Trump is going to be himself,” senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters during a phone call Monday.

Gabbard, who was also on the call, added that Trump “respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man.”

His advisers suggest Harris has a tendency to express herself in a “word salad” of meaningless phrases, prompting Trump to say last week that his debate strategy was to “let her talk.”

The former president frequently plows into rambling remarks that detour from his policy points. He regularly makes false claims about the last election, attacks a lengthy list of enemies and opponents working against him, offers praise for foreign strongmen and comments about race, like his false claim in July that Harris recently “happened to turn Black.”

Harris wants to argue Trump is unstable and unfit

The vice president, who has been the Biden administration’s most outspoken supporter of abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, is expected to focus on calling out Trump’s inconsistencies around women’s reproductive care, including his announcement that he will vote to protect Florida’s six-week abortion ban in a statewide referendum this fall.

Harris was also set to try to portray herself as a steadier hand to lead the nation and safeguard its alliances, as war rages in Ukraine more than two years after Russia’s invasion and Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza drags on with no end in sight.

She is likely to warn that Trump presents a threat to democracy, from his attempts in 2020 to overturn his loss in the presidential election, spurring his angry supporters to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, through comments he made as recently as last weekend. Trump on social media issued yet another message of retribution, threatening that if he wins he will jail “those involved in unscrupulous behavior,” including lawyers, political operatives, donors, voters and election officials.

Harris has spent the better part of the last five days ensconced in debate preparations in Pennsylvania, where she participated in hours-long mock sessions with a Trump stand-in. Ahead of the debate, she told radio host Rickey Smiley that she was workshopping how to respond if Trump lies.

“There’s no floor for him in terms of how low he will go,” she said.

___

AP Polling Editor Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington and Associated Press writers Thomas Beaumont in Las Vegas, Bill Barrow in Atlanta and Josh Boak in Pittsburgh contributed to this report.

Here are the moderators of the presidential debate

“World News Tonight” anchor and managing editor David Muir and “World News Tonight” Sunday anchor and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis will moderate the debate.

Muir joined ABC News in August 2003. Davis joined ABC News in June 2007.

Where and when is the presidential debate?

The first 2024 presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is set to be held at Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Sept. 10.

There will be no audience in the room.

The planned debate comes nearly three weeks after the conclusion of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, in which Harris formally accepted the party’s nomination after a turbulent month kickstarted by Biden’s withdrawal.

What time does it start and how can I watch?

The debate is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET.

NBC News will broadcast the full debate live and offer extensive primetime coverage beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt and TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie will anchor a pre-debate primetime special starting at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, followed by a live presentation of the ABC News-hosted debate at 9 p.m. ET.

Holt and Guthrie will continue special coverage following the debate.

After a disastrous performance in the first general election debate of this cycle in June, President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, upending the campaign in its closing months and kicking off the rapid-fire process that allowed Harris to rise as Democrats’ nominee in his place.

As was the case for the June debate, there will be no audience present.

Pennsylvania is perhaps the nation’s premier swing state, and both candidates have spent significant time campaigning across Pennsylvania. Trump was holding a rally in Butler, in western Pennsylvania, in mid-July when he was nearly assassinated by a gunman perched on a nearby rooftop. Harris chose Philadelphia as the spot where she unveiled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in August.

In 2020, it was Pennsylvania’s electoral votes that put Biden over the top and propelled him into the White House, four years after Trump won the state. Biden’s victory came after more than three days of uncertainty as election officials sorted through a surge of mail-in votes that delayed the processing of some ballots, and the Trump campaign mounted several legal challenges.

An estimated 51.3 million people watched Biden and Trump in June. But that was before many people were truly tuned into the election, and the potential rematch of the 2020 campaign was drawing little enthusiasm.

Tuesday’s debate will almost certainly reach more people, whether or not it approaches the record debate audience of 84 million for the first face-off between Hillary Clinton and Trump in 2016.

Here’s a look at what to expect:

When is the presidential debate?

The presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump takes place at 8 p.m. CT/9 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 10, at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

The planned debate comes nearly three weeks after the conclusion of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, in which Harris formally accepted the party’s nomination after a turbulent month kickstarted by Biden’s withdrawal.

How to watch the presidential debate

Will mics be on or off? Full list of debate rules

The parameters now in place for the Sept. 10 debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

According to ABC News, the candidates will stand behind lecterns, will not make opening statements and will not be allowed to bring notes during the 90-minute debate. David Muir and Linsey Davis will moderate the event.

“Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion,” the network noted.

A Harris campaign official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning around the debate, said a candidate who repeatedly interrupts will receive a warning from a moderator, and both candidates’ microphones may be unmuted if there is significant crosstalk so the audience can understand what’s happening.

After a virtual coin flip held Tuesday and won by Trump, the GOP nominee opted to offer the final closing statement, while Harris chose the podium on the right side of viewers’ screens. There will be no audience, written notes or any topics or questions shared with campaigns or candidates in advance, the network said.

Here’s the full list of rules:

– The debate will be 90 minutes with two commercial breaks.

– The two seated moderators, David Muir and Linsey Davis, will be the only people asking questions.

– A coin flip was held virtually on Tuesday, Sept. 3, to determine podium placement and order of closing statements; former President Donald Trump won the coin toss and chose to select the order of statements. The former president will offer the last closing statement, and Vice President Harris selected the right podium position on screen (stage left).

– Candidates will be introduced by the moderators.

– The candidates enter upon introduction from opposite sides of the stage; the incumbent party will be introduced first.

– No opening statements; closing statements will be two minutes per candidate.

– Candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate.

– Props or prewritten notes are not allowed onstage.

– No topics or questions will be shared in advance with campaigns or candidates.

– Candidates will be given a pen, a pad of paper and a bottle of water.

– Candidates will have two-minute answers to questions, two-minute rebuttals, and one extra minute for follow-ups, clarifications, or responses.

– Candidates’ microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak and muted when the time belongs to another candidate.

– Candidates will not be permitted to ask questions of each other.

– Campaign staff may not interact with candidates during commercial breaks.

– Moderators will seek to enforce timing agreements and ensure a civilized discussion.

– There will be no audience in the room.

Are other debates planned?

Though the September debate is currently the only debate currently planned between Harris and Trump, Harris’ campaign said that a potential October debate was contingent on Trump attending the Sept. 10 debate.

In addition to the planned Harris-Trump debate on Sept. 10, vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance also agreed to a debate, scheduled to be hosted by CBS News on Oct. 1.

When is Election Day?

Voters will officially head to the polls just over a month later Tuesday, Nov. 5, for Election Day, though early voting starts significantly earlier in many states.

Decision 2024 Sep 4

Trump and Harris campaigns agree to rules for ABC debate

Decision 2024 Sep 3

Ready or not, election season in the US is about to start. The first ballots will go out within days

On Saturday, they took their campaign against the conservative Project 2025 blueprint, written by allies of Republican Donald Trump, to the sky above college football stadiums in key swing states.

Democratic National Committee -sponsored banners pulled by small airplanes flew Saturday over Michigan Stadium, where the defending national champion Wolverines lost to Texas, and at home games for Penn State and Wisconsin. A banner set to fly over Georgia’s home game was grounded due to weather.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies have spent months warning about Project 2025, betting that the initiative makes Trump seem especially extreme. More than 900 pages and produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the plan lays out how Trump in his second term might do everything from firing tens of thousands of federal workers to abolishing government departments to imposing new restrictions on abortion and diversity initiatives.

Trump has rejected a direct connection to Project 2025, though he’s also endorsed some of its key ideas.

Saturday’s gambit aimed to put Democratic messaging over stadiums with a total capacity of 380,000-plus, with tens of thousands of fans more in the vicinity of each game.

“JD Vance ‘hearts’ Ohio State + Project 2025,” read the message going over Michigan Stadium, suggesting Trump’s running mate loves the project as much as he famously does Michigan’s hated archrival.

In Wisconsin, which hosted South Dakota, the message was “Jump Around! Beat Trump + Project 2025,” a nod to fans jumping with enough ferocity to shake Camp Randall Stadium when House of Pain’s “Jump Around” plays between the third and fourth quarters.

Penn State’s Bowling Green matchup got more general messages urging fans to “Beat Trump, Sack Project 2025.

Banners started flying around four hours before each kickoff, said DNC deputy communications director Abhi Rahman. The Trump campaign did not answer a message Saturday seeking comment.

Harris’ campaign and party bring up Project 2025 multiple times each day, often unprompted.

The DNC marked Labor Day by arguing that Project 2025 would undermine overtime rules and “hard-fought” worker rights. It also paid for internet ads on the initiative that flashed up for users searching “back to school.” Democrats have further pointed to Project 2025 in seemingly incongruous places, while highlighting Vance getting booed at a recent firefighters convention or slamming Trump for laying into his perceived political enemies in online posts.

“We want people to know exactly what Project 2025 is, what the ties are to Trump,” Rahman said. “Finding creative avenues to get the message out is something that we’re always trying to do.”

Democratic strategist Brad Bannon warned that Harris’ focus on Project 2025 “can’t overwhelm her positive message about the changes she wants to make.”

“She can’t afford to go overboard,” he said, “if it interferes with her establishing her own personal profile.”

A large portion of Saturday’s game crowds, meanwhile, may support Trump. Many college football fans hail from rural, more Republican areas, well beyond the confines of reliably Democratic college towns.

“One of the really interesting things when political candidates try to leverage sports is that they’re putting themselves at risk,” said Amy Bass, who is a professor of sport studies at Manhattanville University in Purchase, New York.

She pointed to Trump being surprised to get booed while attending Game 5 of the 2019 World Series — though the former president also made largely successful stops at tailgates before the Iowa-Iowa State football game in 2023 and when South Carolina hosted Clemson after last Thanksgiving.

Sports crowds have “a propensity to get loud, also have the added layer of alcohol and tailgating and all kinds of things pregame, and they haven’t curated that crowd,” Bass said.

Rahman, though, shrugged off such concerns.

“They can get rowdy all they want at a banner,” he said. “But the message is definitely there. It’s there for a reason.”

There’s no indication that any of the recipients responded, officials said, and several media organizations approached over the summer with leaked stolen information have also said they did not respond. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign called the emails from Iran “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity” that were received by only a few people who regarded them as spam or phishing attempts.

The emails were received before the hack of the Trump campaign was publicly acknowledged, and there’s no evidence the recipients of the emails knew their origin.

The announcement is the latest U.S. government effort to call out what officials say is Iran’s brazen, ongoing work to interfere in the election, including a hack-and-leak campaign that the FBI and other federal agencies linked last month to Tehran.

U.S. officials in recent months have used criminal charges, sanctions and public advisories to detail actions taken by foreign adversaries to influence the election, including an indictment targeting a covert Russian effort to spread pro-Russia content to U.S. audiences.

It’s a stark turnabout from the government’s response in 2016, when Obama administration officials were criticized for not being forthcoming about the Russian interference they were seeing on Trump’s behalf as he ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

In this case, the hackers sent emails in late June and early July to people who were associated with Biden’s campaign before he dropped out. The emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” according to a statement released by the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The agencies have said the Trump campaign hack and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign are part of an effort to undermine voters’ faith in the election and to stoke discord.

The FBI informed Trump aides within the last 48 hours that information hacked by Iran had been sent to the Biden campaign, according to a senior campaign official granted anonymity to speak because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.

The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. At least three news outlets — Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post — were leaked confidential material from inside the Trump campaign. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what it received.

Politico reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — passed along what appeared to be a research dossier that the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.

In a statement, Harris campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said the campaign has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails.

“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Finkelstein said. “We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.

Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the effort to dangle stolen information to the Biden campaign “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election” to help Harris.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposes Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

Iran’s intrusion on the Trump campaign was cited as just one of the cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns identified by tech companies and national security officials at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Executives from Meta, Google and Microsoft briefed lawmakers on their plans for safeguarding the election, and the attacks they’d seen so far.

“The most perilous time I think will come 48 hours before the election,” Microsoft President Brad Smith told lawmakers during the hearing, which focused on American tech companies’ efforts to safeguard the election from foreign disinformation and cyberattacks.

Eighty-eight current and former top executives from across corporate America have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president in a new letter shared exclusively with CNBC.

Among the signers are several high-profile CEOs of public companies, including Aaron Levie of Box, Jeremy Stoppelman of Yelp and Michael Lynton, chairman of Snap, Inc. 

Other signers appear to be issuing their first public endorsements of Harris since she became the de facto Democratic nominee in July.

They include James Murdoch, the former CEO of 21st Century Fox and an heir to the Murdoch family media empire, and crypto executive Chris Larsen, co-founder of the Ripple blockchain platform.

Other notable signers are philanthropist Lynn Forrester de Rothschild, private equity billionaire José Feliciano, Twilio co-founder Jeff Lawson, and D.C. sports magnate Ted Leonsis, owner of the NBA’s Washington Wizards, WNBA’s Mystics and the NHL’s Washington Capitals.

The three-page list also includes a slate of longtime Democratic political donors, like Kleiner Perkins’ John Doerr, Insight partners Deven Parekh and Jeffrey Katzenberg, the former chairman of Walt Disney Studios.

Another subset of names are people who have supported Harris in particular since her political campaigns in California, like the philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and NBA Hall-of-Famer and billionaire businessman Magic Johnson.

More than a dozen of the signers made their fortunes on Wall Street: Tony James, the former president and COO of Blackstone and founder of Jefferson River Capital; Bruce Heyman, former managing director of private wealth at Goldman Sachs; Peter Orszag, CEO of Lazard and Steve Westly managing director of the Westly Group and a former Tesla board member. 

Still more are prominent in Silicon Valley, including the venture capitalist Ron Conway, entrepreneur Mark Cuban, and former LinkedIn CEO Reid Hoffman.

After all these, however, the lion’s share of the 88 signers who endorsed Harris are former CEOs of major public companies.

They include former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, Barry Diller of Paramount, Ken Frazier of Merck, Logan Green of Lyft, Blake Irving of GoDaddy, Alan Mulally of Ford, Laxman Narasimhan of Starbucks, and Dan Schulman of PayPal.

A strategic purpose

Considering how long the list of names runs, the endorsement letter itself is relatively short.

“The best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy” is by electing Harris president, the writers say.

They also argue that Harris would “continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment” if she were president.

The reason for the long list and the short letter is because the letter itself was not written to convince the general public to vote for Harris.

Instead, it’s purpose is to serve as a well-timed political show of force for Harris, who is locked in a very tight race, with the first presidential debate just four days away.

Both Harris and Trump have spent the past week rolling out their dueling economic visions, ahead of the Sept. 10 debate, hosted by ABC.

Harris outlined proposals to support small businesses that feature a plan to increase a tax deduction for start-up expenses by ten times, up to $50,000. 

She also proposed lifting the top capital gains tax rate to 28% for people making more than $1 million a year—up from the current 20% rate, but far lower than the 39.6% level that President Joe Biden has proposed.

Harris said she dialed back Biden’s top rate, in part, because her goal is to encourage more private-sector investment.

Trump laid out his own competing economic agenda on Thursday in New York, where he called for the creation of a government efficiency commission designed to root out fraud.

He also pledged to cut the corporate tax rate from 21% to 15% for companies that make their products in the United States.

Trump has also earned support from a number of prominent Wall Street and private-sector backers, including Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX.

The letter’s initial organization can be traced back to four top Harris supporters: Roger Altman, senior chairman of Evercore, Blair Effron, co-founder of Centerview Partners, the former American Express CEO Ken Chenault and Ursula Burns, the former CEO of Xerox.

The genesis of the project was described to CNBC by a person familiar with the process, who was granted anonymity to describe how it came about.

Altman, Effron, Chenault and Burns organized the effort, and then brought the letter to the Harris presidential campaign as a way to showcase the vice president’s support within the business community.

The full text of the letter and list of signatures is below.

We endorse Kamala Harris’s election as President of the United States.

Her election is the best way to support the continued strength, security, and reliability of our democracy and economy. With Kamala Harris in the White House, the business community can be confident that it will have a President who wants American industries to thrive. As a partner to President Biden, Vice President Harris has a strong record of advancing actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win in the global market. She will continue to advance fair and predictable policies that support the rule of law, stability, and a sound business environment, and she will strive to give every American the opportunity to pursue the American dream.

• Roger Altman, Founder & Senior Chairman of Evercore
• Shellye Archambeau, former CEO of MetricStream
• Carl Bass, former CEO of Autodesk
• Tom Bernstein, President and Co-Founder of Chelsea Piers
• Afasaneh Beschloss, Founder & CEO of Rock Creek
• Jeff Bewkes, former CEO of Time Warner
• W. Michael Blumenthal, 64th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and former CEO of both Bendix and Unisys
• Rosalind “Roz” Brewer, former CEO of Sam’s Club; former CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance; former COO of Starbucks
• Ursula Burns, former CEO of Xerox; Chairwoman of Teneo; Founding Partner of Integrum Holdings
• Maverick Carter, CEO of The SpringHill Company
• Ken Chenault, Chairman & Managing Director of General Catalyst; former Chairman & CEO of American Express
• Peter Chernin, Co-Founder & Partner of TCG 
• Tony Coles, Chairperson & former CEO of Cerevel
• Tim Collins, Founder, CEO, and Senior Managing Director of Ripplewood
• Ron Conway, Founder & Managing Partner of SV Angel
• Robert Crandall, former President and Chairman of American Airlines
• Mark Cuban, Various entrepreneurial endeavors and a “shark” on Shark Tank
• Richelieu Dennis, Founder and Executive Chair of Sundial Group of Companies
• Barry Diller, Chairman & Senior Executive of IAC and Senior Executive of Expedia; Former Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Fox, Inc.
• John Doerr, Chairman of Kleiner Perkins
• Arnold Donald, former CEO of Carnival Corporation
• Blair Effron, Partner & Co-Founder of Centerview Partners
• José E. Feliciano, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Clearlake Capital Group
• David P. Fialkow, Co-Founder & Managing Director of General Catalyst
• Anne Finucane, former Vice Chair of Bank of America
• Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Chief Executive of E.L. Rothschild
• Ken Frazier, former Executive Chairman, President & CEO of Merck
• Mark Gallogly, Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Three Cairns Group; Co-Founder of Centerbridge Partners
• Chad Gifford, Former Chairman of Bank of America
• David Grain, Founder and CEO of Grain Management
• Logan Green, Chairman and former CEO of Lyft
• Daniel J. Halpern, Co-founder and CEO of Jackmont Hospitality
• Bruce Heyman, Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada and former Managing Director of Private Wealth at Goldman Sachs
• Mellody Hobson, Co-CEO and President of Ariel Investments; Chairman of Starbucks
• Roger Hochschild, former CEO and President of Discover Financial Services
• Reid Hoffman, Partner at Greylock Partners and Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn 
• Glenn Hutchins, Chairman of North Island or Co-Founder of Silver Lake
• Blake Irving, former CEO of GoDaddy
• Tony James, former President, CEO & Executive Vice Chairman of Blackstone; Founder of Jefferson River Capital
• David Jacobson, Senior Advisor and former Vice Chair of BMO Financial Group; Former U.S. Ambassador to Canada
• Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Chairman and CEO, Magic Johnson Enterprises
• Brad Karp, Chairman of Paul, Weiss
• Jeffrey Katzenberg, Founder & Managing Partner of WndrCo
• Ellen Kullman, President and CEO of Carbon3; former Chair and CEO of DuPont
• Todd Lachman, Founder of Sovos Brands
• Chris Larsen, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Ripple
• Jeff Lawson, former CEO of Twilio
• Ted Leonsis, CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment
• Aaron Levie, Co-Founder & CEO of Box
• Ed Lewis, former Chairman and CEO of Essence Communications, co-founder Essence Magazine
• William M. Lewis, Jr.
• Michael Lynton, Chairman of Snap, Inc., former CEO of Sony Entertainment
• Tracy V. Maitland, President and Chief Investment Officer of Advent Capital Management
• Helena Maus, CEO of Archetype and Marker Collective
• Marissa Mayer, co-founder and CEO of Sunshine Products, former CEO of Yahoo!
• T.J. McGill, Co-Founder of Evergreen Pacific Partners and Suzanne Sinegal McGill, Co-Founder of Rwanda Girls Initiative
• Danny Meyer, Founder & Executive Chairman of Union Square Hospitality Group
• Dustin Moskovitz, Co-founder and CEO of Asana
• Alan Mulally, former CEO of Ford
• Anne Mulcahy, former Chairman and CEO of Xerox
• James Murdoch, Founder & CEO of Lupa Systems; former CEO of 21st Century Fox
• Laxman Narasimhan, former CEO of Starbucks
• Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo
• Peter Orszag, former Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget and CEO of Lazard
• Deven J. Parekh, Managing Director of Insight Partners
• Sean Parker, Founder of Napster; Founder and Chairman of Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
• Charles Phillips, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Recognize; former President of Oracle and former CEO of Infor; 
• Laurene Powell Jobs, Founder and President of Emerson Collective
• Penny Pritzker, 38th U.S. Secretary of Commerce; founder and Chairman of PSP Partners 
• Vasant Prabhu, former CFO and Vice-Chair of Visa
• Spencer Rascoff, Founder and CEO of 75 & Sunny Ventures; Co-Founder and former CEO of Zillow
• Punit Renjen
• Rachel Romer, Founder of Guild Education
• Robert Rubin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary; Senior Counselor at Centerview Partners
• Kevin P. Ryan, Co-founder, MongoDB, Business Insider, GILT Groupe, Zola, Pearl Health, Affect Therapeutics, and Transcend Therapeutics
• Faiza J. Saeed
• Dan Schulman, former President & CEO of PayPal
• Jim Sinegal, Co-Founder and Former CEO of Costco
• Dan Springer, former CEO of Docusign
• Tom Steyer, Founder and former Co-Senior-Managing-Partner of Farallon Capital
• Jeremy Stoppelman, CEO of Yelp
• Scott Stuart, Founding & Managing Partner of Sageview Capital
• Larry Summers, 71st United States Secretary of the Treasury and President Emeritus of Harvard University
• Hamdi Ulukaya, Founder & CEO of Chobani
• Daniel Weiss, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Angeleno Group
• Steve Westly, Founder and Managing Partner of The Westly Group
• Ron Williams, former CEO of Aetna
• Robert Wolf, former CEO of UBS Americas

The Sept. 10 event in Philadelphia will use the same rules and format as the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden.

Both campaigns had previously agreed to hold the debate on that date, but the agreement appeared to be in jeopardy after Trump suggested he might back out and Harris’ team sought to change the rule on muted microphones.

Candidate microphones will be live only for the candidate whose turn it is to speak.

Trump campaign official Jason Miller said in a statement that the former president’s campaign was “thrilled that Kamala Harris and her team of Biden campaign leftovers” have “accepted the already agreed upon rules.”

“Americans want to hear both candidates present their competing visions to the voters, unburdened by what has been,” Miller said. “We’ll see you all in Philadelphia next Tuesday.”

In a letter to ABC, the Harris campaign agreed to the muted microphone rule but said she “will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President.”

“Notwithstanding our concerns, we understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format. We do not want to jeopardize the debate. For this reason, we accepted the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphones,” the letter said, bringing an end to the stalemate.

The 90-minute debate will be held without an audience in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center at 9 p.m. ET, and will be moderated by David Muir and Linsey Davis of ABC News. Neither candidate will be allowed notes or props, and both will stand for the entire debate. Both will have two minutes to answer questions and two-minute rebuttals, with an additional minute to each candidate for follow-up, clarification or response.

The rules mirror the June 27 CNN debate between Trump and Biden. The president’s performance in the debate was widely panned and eventually led to him exiting the race and endorsing Harris in July.

0 seconds of 2 minutes, 48 secondsVolume 89%

The standoff over muted or live microphones had threatened to derail the debate, and the Harris campaign took jabs at Trump during the impasse.

“Both candidates have publicly made clear their willingness to debate with unmuted mics for the duration of the debate to fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates — but it appears Donald Trump is letting his handlers overrule him. Sad!” a Harris campaign spokesperson previously said in a statement to NBC News.

Trump had told reporters that he was considering backing out of the debate because he didn’t like how Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., was treated in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week.”

“When I looked at the hostility of that, I said, ‘Why am I doing it? Let’s do it with another network.’ I want to do it,” Trump said.

He also acknowledged at the time that he didn’t have an issue with both microphones being live, but said that “we agreed to the same rules” as the June 27 debate with Biden. “I’d rather have it probably on, but the agreement was it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted,” Trump said.

Trump publicly relented on ABC hosting the debate in a post on Truth Social on Aug. 27 when he said he had “reached an agreement” with the network.

A virtual coin flip on Tuesday determined podium placement and the order of closing statements for Sept. 10, ABC News said. Trump won the coin toss and decided to speak last during closing statements. Harris selected the right podium position on the screen.

NBC news’ Rebecca Shabad, Zoë Richards and Megan Lebowitz contributed.

This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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Election Day is two months away, but some important California election dates and deadlines are just around the corner.

One of the milestones on the path to Nov. 5 is in early October when county elections offices begin mailing vote-by-mail ballots. The voter registration deadline arrives later next month with vote centers open for early voting in the weeks prior to Election Day.

When it’s all over, some time after Nov. 5, voters will have decided statewide ballot propositions, county and city office races and who will be the next President of the United States.

Here are some important election dates and deadlines to know.

Decision 2024 Sep 3

Ready or not, election season in the US is about to start. The first ballots will go out within days

Decision 2024 Aug 23

When is the upcoming Harris vs. Trump presidential debate?

Aug. 29: Voters can start using the My Voter Status tool to confirm their mailing address and voting status. Anyone planning to vote should verify and, if needed, update their voter registration. Re-registration is required if you’ve moved or changed your address, changed your name, or would like to change your political party affiliation.

Sept. 26 to Oct. 15: This is when the California Secretary of State and county election officials will mail voter information guides.

Oct. 7: County elections offices will begin mailing vote-by-mail ballots. California mails every active registered voter in the state a vote-by-mail ballot, a practice that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. You can check on your ballot here.  Early voting sites also open.

Oct. 8: County elections officials will open ballot drop-off locations by this date. Find a location here. The locations will stay open through Election Day.

Oct. 21: The voter registration deadline for vote-by-mail. As of July 5, there were 26.8 millions eligible voters in California, 22.1 million of whom are registered to vote.

Oct. 22 to Nov. 5: Same day voter registration will be available, including on Election Day. Voters who choose this option are “conditionally” registered and cast a provisional ballot.

Oct. 26: Voter’s Choice Act counties open vote centers.

Nov. 5: Polls open throughout California from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Day.

After Election Day 2024

The work is far from done for elections officials in California’s 58 counties on Election Day.

After polls close Nov. 5 at 8 p.m., county elections officials begin reporting results. The county offices conduct a semifinal official canvass of votes with totals reported to the California Secrety of State every two hours until the process is complete.

Nov. 12: Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by a county elections office to be counted.

Dec. 3: Counties send a statement of results in the race for U.S. President to the Secretary of State.

Dec. 5: This is the last day for county elections offices to certify election results.

Dec. 6: County elections officials send electronically a complete copy of the general election returns to the Secretary of State.

Dec. 7. This is the last day for the Secretary of State to analyze votes given for presidential electors and certify to the governor the names of the candidates having the highest number of votes.

Dec. 13: The statement of vote is certified by the Secretary of State.

Southern California county elections offices

Your county elections officer is the go-to source for information on voting in the 2024 General Election. Find a link to your county office below.

• Los Angeles County
• Orange County
• Riverside County
• San Bernardino County
• Ventura County
• All California county elections offices

There’s no indication that any of the recipients responded, officials said, and several media organizations approached over the summer with leaked stolen information have also said they did not respond. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign called the emails from Iran “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity” that were received by only a few people who regarded them as spam or phishing attempts.

The emails were received before the hack of the Trump campaign was publicly acknowledged, and there’s no evidence the recipients of the emails knew their origin.

The announcement is the latest U.S. government effort to call out what officials say is Iran’s brazen, ongoing work to interfere in the election, including a hack-and-leak campaign that the FBI and other federal agencies linked last month to Tehran.

U.S. officials in recent months have used criminal charges, sanctions and public advisories to detail actions taken by foreign adversaries to influence the election, including an indictment targeting a covert Russian effort to spread pro-Russia content to U.S. audiences.

It’s a stark turnabout from the government’s response in 2016, when Obama administration officials were criticized for not being forthcoming about the Russian interference they were seeing on Trump’s behalf as he ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

In this case, the hackers sent emails in late June and early July to people who were associated with Biden’s campaign before he dropped out. The emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” according to a statement released by the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The agencies have said the Trump campaign hack and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign are part of an effort to undermine voters’ faith in the election and to stoke discord.

The FBI informed Trump aides within the last 48 hours that information hacked by Iran had been sent to the Biden campaign, according to a senior campaign official granted anonymity to speak because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.

The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. At least three news outlets — Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post — were leaked confidential material from inside the Trump campaign. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what it received.

Politico reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — passed along what appeared to be a research dossier that the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.

In a statement, Harris campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said the campaign has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails.

“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Finkelstein said. “We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.

Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the effort to dangle stolen information to the Biden campaign “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election” to help Harris.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposes Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

Iran’s intrusion on the Trump campaign was cited as just one of the cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns identified by tech companies and national security officials at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Executives from Meta, Google and Microsoft briefed lawmakers on their plans for safeguarding the election, and the attacks they’d seen so far.

“The most perilous time I think will come 48 hours before the election,” Microsoft President Brad Smith told lawmakers during the hearing, which focused on American tech companies’ efforts to safeguard the election from foreign disinformation and cyberattacks.

Prop 34 would require providers to spend 98% of that profit on direct patient care but only if the health care providers meet certain specifications. They must spend at least $100 million on expenses outside direct care, own and operate apartment buildings and have at least 500 severe health and safety violations from the last decade.

“The organizations that would be subject to this proposition, there’s only one. As far as anyone can tell, that’s the AIDS Healthcare Foundation,” said CalMatters Housing Reporter Ben Christopher.

You read that right: the proposition appears to be taking aim at one group, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which has become a major player in the California housing politics game and is a driving force behind the rent control measure (Prop 33) that is also on the ballot this November.

“Proposition 34 is a revenge initiative that is targeted specifically at AIDS Healthcare Foundation, and it’s primarily because AIDS Healthcare Foundation has been spearheading rent control initiatives,” said Susie Shannon, the No on 34 campaign manager, who also works with AHF.

The California Apartment Association is the landlord lobby pushing for Prop 34. The Yes on Prop 34 campaign argues a handful of “bad actor[s]” are using a “legal loophole” to spend money meant for patient care on building housing projects they say are “run like slums.”

In a statement, Yes on 34 wrote, “Prop 34 will prevent this abuse from occurring in California and requires discount drug program dollars generated in California to be used for their intended purpose: helping patients.”

“If you read the text of the prop, it seems to have everything to do with health care,” Christopher said. “But really, this is ultimately about housing politics in California.”

Politics, not policy.

“This is sort of another and maybe one of the more extreme examples of political interest groups using the proposition system to advance their very narrow goals,” Christopher said.

There’s no indication that any of the recipients responded, officials said, and several media organizations approached over the summer with leaked stolen information have also said they did not respond. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign called the emails from Iran “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity” that were received by only a few people who regarded them as spam or phishing attempts.

The emails were received before the hack of the Trump campaign was publicly acknowledged, and there’s no evidence the recipients of the emails knew their origin.

The announcement is the latest U.S. government effort to call out what officials say is Iran’s brazen, ongoing work to interfere in the election, including a hack-and-leak campaign that the FBI and other federal agencies linked last month to Tehran.

U.S. officials in recent months have used criminal charges, sanctions and public advisories to detail actions taken by foreign adversaries to influence the election, including an indictment targeting a covert Russian effort to spread pro-Russia content to U.S. audiences.

It’s a stark turnabout from the government’s response in 2016, when Obama administration officials were criticized for not being forthcoming about the Russian interference they were seeing on Trump’s behalf as he ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

In this case, the hackers sent emails in late June and early July to people who were associated with Biden’s campaign before he dropped out. The emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” according to a statement released by the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The agencies have said the Trump campaign hack and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign are part of an effort to undermine voters’ faith in the election and to stoke discord.

The FBI informed Trump aides within the last 48 hours that information hacked by Iran had been sent to the Biden campaign, according to a senior campaign official granted anonymity to speak because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.

The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. At least three news outlets — Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post — were leaked confidential material from inside the Trump campaign. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what it received.

Politico reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — passed along what appeared to be a research dossier that the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.

In a statement, Harris campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said the campaign has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails.

“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Finkelstein said. “We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.

Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the effort to dangle stolen information to the Biden campaign “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election” to help Harris.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposes Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

Iran’s intrusion on the Trump campaign was cited as just one of the cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns identified by tech companies and national security officials at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Executives from Meta, Google and Microsoft briefed lawmakers on their plans for safeguarding the election, and the attacks they’d seen so far.

“The most perilous time I think will come 48 hours before the election,” Microsoft President Brad Smith told lawmakers during the hearing, which focused on American tech companies’ efforts to safeguard the election from foreign disinformation and cyberattacks.

The crashed occurred shortly before 1 p.m. local time. Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign said she spoke with Walz shortly after the crash and that he was not injured. The campaign said the crash involved cars near the rear of the motorcade, not closer to the front, where Walz, who is also the governor of Minnesota, was riding.

A member of Walz traveling staff, who was in a van carrying reporters, was injured and being treated by medics, according to a pool report from a reporter traveling in Walz’s motorcade. The pool reporter said others in the van were shaken but appeared to be OK after being “violently thrown forward, as our van slammed into the one in front of us and was hit from behind.”

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the crash.

The crash occurred after Walz and his wife, Gwen, were greeted at the airport by Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore of Wisconsin. The trio embraced, chatted and posed for a photo before the motorcade began heading to the event.

Monday’s campaign stops marking Labor Day were Walz’s first aboard the Harris-Walz campaign charter aircraft. It bears decals of an American flag, the words Harris-Walz, and “A New Way Forward.”

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Harris accused Trump of “disrespect[ing] sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.”

“If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude,” she added.

Harris also called on Trump to “never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America,” as a result of his actions.

Her statement comes after the U.S. Army said that a member of Trump’s campaign staff “abruptly pushed aside” a staff member at the cemetery so that Trump and his campaign could take photos and videos with families of service members who passed away during the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

The incident occurred in Section 60, where taking videos and photos is usually prohibited.

During an interview with NBC News Thursday, Trump defended his actions, saying a family “asked me whether or not I would stand for a picture at the grave of their loved one who should not have died.”

He claimed that he did not request to take photos and videos, but “While I was there, I didn’t ask for a picture. While I was there, they said, ‘Sir, could we have a picture at the grave?’”

In a post on X responding to Harris, Trump’s running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance said, “President trump was there at the invitation of families whose loved ones died because of your incompetence. Why don’t you get off social media and go launch an investigation into their unnecessary deaths?”

And Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt blasted Harris in her own post, blaming the vice president for the servicemembers’ deaths during the withdrawal, which occurred during the Biden administration.

“Kamala’s stupidity led to one of the most embarrassing events in American history and 13 brave US soldiers being killed,” Leavitt posted, adding “For this alone, Kamala does not deserve to be elected. Kamala has already proven that she would be a dangerously incompetent Commander in Chief.” 

This article first appeared on NBCNews.com. Read more from NBC News here:

• Army says a Trump aide ‘abruptly pushed aside’ an Arlington National Cemetery employee
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There’s no indication that any of the recipients responded, officials said, and several media organizations approached over the summer with leaked stolen information have also said they did not respond. Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign called the emails from Iran “unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity” that were received by only a few people who regarded them as spam or phishing attempts.

The emails were received before the hack of the Trump campaign was publicly acknowledged, and there’s no evidence the recipients of the emails knew their origin.

The announcement is the latest U.S. government effort to call out what officials say is Iran’s brazen, ongoing work to interfere in the election, including a hack-and-leak campaign that the FBI and other federal agencies linked last month to Tehran.

U.S. officials in recent months have used criminal charges, sanctions and public advisories to detail actions taken by foreign adversaries to influence the election, including an indictment targeting a covert Russian effort to spread pro-Russia content to U.S. audiences.

It’s a stark turnabout from the government’s response in 2016, when Obama administration officials were criticized for not being forthcoming about the Russian interference they were seeing on Trump’s behalf as he ran against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

In this case, the hackers sent emails in late June and early July to people who were associated with Biden’s campaign before he dropped out. The emails “contained an excerpt taken from stolen, non-public material from former President Trump’s campaign as text in the emails,” according to a statement released by the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The agencies have said the Trump campaign hack and an attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign are part of an effort to undermine voters’ faith in the election and to stoke discord.

The FBI informed Trump aides within the last 48 hours that information hacked by Iran had been sent to the Biden campaign, according to a senior campaign official granted anonymity to speak because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.

The Trump campaign disclosed on Aug. 10 that it had been hacked and said Iranian actors had stolen and distributed sensitive internal documents. At least three news outlets — Politico, The New York Times and The Washington Post — were leaked confidential material from inside the Trump campaign. So far, each has refused to reveal any details about what it received.

Politico reported that it began receiving emails on July 22 from an anonymous account. The source — an AOL email account identified only as “Robert” — passed along what appeared to be a research dossier that the campaign had apparently done on the Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The document was dated Feb. 23, almost five months before Trump selected Vance as his running mate.

In a statement, Harris campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein said the campaign has cooperated with law enforcement since learning that people associated with Biden’s team were among the recipients of the emails.

“We’re not aware of any material being sent directly to the campaign; a few individuals were targeted on their personal emails with what looked like a spam or phishing attempt,” Finkelstein said. “We condemn in the strongest terms any effort by foreign actors to interfere in U.S. elections including this unwelcome and unacceptable malicious activity.

Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the effort to dangle stolen information to the Biden campaign “further proof the Iranians are actively interfering in the election” to help Harris.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposes Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

Iran’s intrusion on the Trump campaign was cited as just one of the cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns identified by tech companies and national security officials at a hearing Wednesday of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Executives from Meta, Google and Microsoft briefed lawmakers on their plans for safeguarding the election, and the attacks they’d seen so far.

“The most perilous time I think will come 48 hours before the election,” Microsoft President Brad Smith told lawmakers during the hearing, which focused on American tech companies’ efforts to safeguard the election from foreign disinformation and cyberattacks.

Harris presented herself as a pragmatist in the long-anticipated interview, given to CNN’s Dana Bash alongside her running mate, Tim Walz. The vice president sought to strike a balance between defending the Biden-Harris administration’s legacy and charting her own path if elected president, while taking questions about how some of her policy positions have changed since the last time she ran for president.

“I believe it is important to build consensus, and it is important to find a common place of understanding of where we can actually solve problems,” Harris said.

Here are five takeaways from the interview.

Defending her shifting stances

Harris has changed her position on some major issues since 2019, when she ran for president and sought to win over progressive Democratic primary voters by cosponsoring Medicare for All, supporting a Green New Deal, opposing fracking and calling for decriminalizing migration.

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“The most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said in the interview Thursday, adding that she continues to believe “the climate crisis is real” and that the White House made strides to address it with the Inflation Reduction Act.

On fracking, Harris said she promised during the 2020 vice presidential debate that she wouldn’t seek to ban fracking, “nor will I going forward.” She continued, “I cast the tie-breaking vote that actually increased leases for fracking as vice president.”

(Harris said during her 2020 debate against Mike Pence that “Joe Biden will not ban fracking.”)

Harris added that there can be “a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”

On those who cross the border unlawfully, Harris said, “I believe there should be consequence. We have laws that have to be followed and enforced that address and deal with people who cross our border illegally.” She also criticized Trump for pushing Republicans to kill a bipartisan border security bill.

“My value around what we need to do to secure our border — that value has not changed. I spent two terms as the attorney general of California prosecuting transnational criminal organizations,” she said.

Brushing off Trump’s rhetoric on her race

Trump has sought to attack Harris’ racial identity, falsely claiming she previously identified as Indian American and only started identifying as Black recently.

Harris didn’t engage.

“Same old, tired playbook,” she said. “Next question, please.”

Harris cast Trump as a politician of the past, calling him “someone who is really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans, really dividing our nation.

“And I think people are ready to turn the page on that,” she continued.

It reflects Harris’ approach to the campaign since she took the baton from Biden last month: running her own race as opposed to focusing on what Trump has said day to day.

Her ‘Day One’ agenda

Harris said her “Day One” agenda as president will be to start “implementing my plan for what I call an opportunity economy,” citing her recent economic proposals aimed at lowering costs.

“Prices, in particular for groceries, are still too high. The American people know it. I know it,” she said. “Which is why my agenda includes what we need to do to bring down the price of groceries, for example, dealing with an issue like price gouging.”

Harris continued, “What we need to do to extend the child tax credit to help young families be able to take care of their children in their most formative years. What we need to do to bring down the cost of housing; my proposal includes what would be a tax credit of $25,000 for first-time home buyers.”

When asked why she hasn’t already done those things as vice president, Harris defended Biden’s record but said “there’s more to do.” Harris also said she doesn’t regret her remarks after the late June debate that the president could ably serve another four-year term. (Biden bowed to pressure mounting in his party and withdrew from the presidential race on July 21, less than a month later.)

Trump lashes out at Harris’ answers

Trump responded on his social media platform ahead of the interview after watching a clip of Harris defending her new stances.

“I just saw Comrade Kamala Harris’ answer to a very weakly-phrased question … her answer rambled incoherently, and declared her ‘values haven’t changed.’ On that I agree, her values haven’t changed — The Border is going to remain open, not closed, there will be Free Healthcare for Illegal Aliens, Sanctuary Cities, No Cash Bail, Gun Confiscation, Zero Fracking, a Ban on Gasoline-Powered Cars, Private Healthcare will be abolished, a 70-80% tax rate will be put in place, and she will Defund the Police,” Trump wrote. “America will become a WASTELAND!”

Walz: ‘I wear my emotions on my sleeves’

Walz defended his prior characterizations of his service in the national guard, including suggesting while discussing gun policy that he served in combat situations. Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, himself a military veteran, accused him of “stolen valor.”

Walz — who has previously said through a spokesperson that he “misspoke” when talking about handling weapons “in war” — elaborated on his remarks, blaming that and other misstatements on a habit of speaking “passionately.”

“First of all, I’m incredibly proud I’ve done 24 years of wearing the uniform of this country,” Walz said in the Thursday interview. “I wear my emotions on my sleeves, and I speak especially passionately about about our children being shot in schools and around around guns. So I think people know me,” he said. “They know who I am. They know where my heart is.”

“If it’s not this, it’s an attack on my children for showing love for me, or it’s an attack on my dog,” he said. “The one thing I’ll never do is I’ll never demean another member’s service in any way.”

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“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump said, before adding, “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

Asked to clarify whether the government would pay for IVF services or whether insurance companies would do so, Trump reiterated that one option would be to have insurance companies pay “under a mandate, yes.”

Abortion and IVF have been a political liability for the GOP this year. Democrats have blasted Republicans over IVF in recent months, saying that GOP-led restrictions on abortion could lead to restrictions on IVF as well.

In a statement, Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign, said that “Donald Trump’s own platform could effectively ban IVF and abortion nationwide” and added that “because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country. There is only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.”

The statement refers to the GOP platform’s language on the 14th Amendment in its section on abortion policy: “We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights.”

Earlier this year, the Alabama state Supreme Court ruled that embryos created via IVF were to be considered people, a move that led to the largest fertility clinics in the state pausing their IVF care.

Trump’s stance could put him at odds with anti-abortion advocates who oppose certain parts of the IVF process that involve discarding unused embryos.

Currently, few people have insurance plans that cover fertility treatments like IVF, leaving many couples to pay out of pocket for the treatment’s high costs. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates the cost per patient for one cycle of IVF at about $20,000.

According to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, its member clinics performed 389,993 IVF cycles in 2022. At a cost of around $20,000 each, that would come to $7.8 billion for that one year.

A growing number of employers have begun to offer fertility benefits over the last decade, however. Some pay for a fixed amount of a patient’s costs, while others have a lifetime maximum of a particular number of cycles.

Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, spoke in a recent, separate NBC News interview about his “frustration that reproductive rights is a whole suite of pro-family things that Republicans are way better at than Democrats. And the media always focus on abortion. But, you know, we’ve actually done a lot of things to try to promote fertility treatments to people who are struggling with it.”

Trump’s stance on IVF is the latest instance of him addressing criticism of his presidential administration through 2024 campaign policy proposals. After criticism from Democrats that his 2017 tax plan favored the wealthy, he announced that if elected again, he would eliminated taxes on tips for service workers.

Now, as he and other Republicans face criticism for supporting the Supreme Court justices who struck down Roe, Trump is proposing to protect IVF and address its costs.

In the interview, Trump did not explicitly say how we would vote on an upcoming ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would guarantee a right to abortion until fetal viability, which is around 24 weeks of pregnancy. He repeated past criticism that Florida’s current six-week limit on abortion, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is “too short.” Trump added, “it has to be more time.”

Pressed on how he will be voting in November, he said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

Trump has long gone back and forth on his position on abortion before arriving at his current position that the issue should be up to the states.

As president, before Roe v. Wade was overturned, he once urged the Senate to pass a 20-week ban on abortion. After he left office, he celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe and the national right to abortion, at one point going as far as saying, “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade,” in a social media post.

But as the presidential race has taken shape this year, the former president has inched further away from other Republicans on the issue, especially as abortion has emerged as a key issue for Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies.

In a speech at the Democratic convention last week, Harris called Trump and Vance “out of their minds” and accused them of planning to “ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion.”

In the interview, Trump said on abortion policy that “exceptions are very important for me,” later adding, “I believe in exceptions for life of the mother … incest, rape.”

Trump on Thursday also pushed back on criticism of his Monday visit to Arlington National Cemetery, saying that a family “asked me whether or not I would stand for a picture at the grave of their loved one who should not have died.”

The former president said that he did not initiate the photo, adding, “While I was there, I didn’t ask for a picture. While I was there, they said, ‘Sir, could we have a picture at the grave?'”

Trump’s campaign has faced criticism this week after reports emerged that a member of Trump’s staff “abruptly pushed aside” a cemetery staff member who tried to prevent Trump and others from taking photo and videos in Section 60, where service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried and where filming is typically prohibited.

The former president on Thursday also blasted Harris on immigration and border security, reprising his usual language about the increased number of migrants entering the country in recent years.

“Our country is going to hell. We’ve never been in a position like this,” Trump said, adding, “There’s never been a country that’s been invaded like we have been invaded. And I think that alone loses them the election.”

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