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What's happening today on the campaign trail
- President Joe Biden talked up his administration's efforts to spur private investment in U.S. manufacturing this afternoon. Vice President Kamala Harris has no public events.
- Former President Donald Trump has several campaign stops planned for later this week, including in New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
- Second gentleman Doug Emhoff participates this evening in a Jewish Voters for Harris-Walz call.
John McCain’s son endorses Harris and hits Trump over Arlington National Cemetery incident
The incident involving Trump’s campaign staff at Arlington National Cemetery was the last straw for Jimmy McCain, the youngest son of the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
In an interview Tuesday on CNN, McCain said that after last week’s events at the cemetery he registered as a Democrat and decided to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris this fall.
McCain, who recently returned from deployment at a military base in Jordan where three Army Reserve soldiers were killed in January, said he changed his party affiliation to honor his father and put “country first.”
Man arrested at Trump rally in Pennsylvania wanted to hang a protest banner, police say
A man arrested last week at a Pennsylvania rally for Trump had hoped to hang a banner to protest Trump’s policies, Johnstown’s police chief said today.
Authorities announced that misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest were filed against Stephen A. Weiss, 36, of Pittsburgh, who was taken into custody at Friday’s Trump rally.
Johnstown Police Chief Richard Pritchard said investigators do not know what the banner said because arena staff apparently discarded it. He said it was made from a bed sheet and that Weiss told a detective that he does not believe in Trump’s policies.
At vigil for hostages, Emhoff says Harris 'gets it, she cares'
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff delivered remarks tonight at a vigil for hostages held by Hamas and the six who were recently killed.
"I’m here as a fellow congregant, a fellow mourner, and as a Jew who feels connected to all of you," Emhoff said at the Adas Israel Congregation Synagogue in Washington, D.C. "How you all feel right now is how I feel, and how we all feel is something that Kamala hears directly from me almost each and every day."
Emhoff said that Harris "gets it, she cares."
He spoke at length about parents Rachel and John Goldberg-Polin’s continued advocacy to bring hostages home, even after the death of their son, Israeli American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
"Hersh’s loss feels so personal to the two of us, just like it feels to all of you. We were both grieving," Emhoff said.
Family members of hostages attended the vigil, including Hersh's great uncle Norman Goldstein.
“The time to bring the hostages home is now,” Emhoff said to applause from the congregation.
Republicans in Massachusetts select attorney John Deaton to take on Sen. Elizabeth Warren
Attorney John Deaton won a three-way Republican primary to face off against incumbent U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who ran unopposed in today's Massachusetts primary.
Deaton, a former U.S. Marine and cryptocurrency attorney who was born in Detroit, announced earlier this year that he would vie for the chance to challenge Warren in November as she runs for her third term in office. He defeated fellow Republicans industrial engineer Bob Antonellis and Quincy City Council President Ian Cain.
Harris-Walz bus promoting 'reproductive freedom' cruises by Mar-a-Lago
A Harris-Walz campaign bus with the worlds “reproductive freedom” emblazoned on its side drove by Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence today on its way to Jacksonville, Fla.
“I call that his retirement home,” joked Sen. Amy Klobuchar as she headlined the bus tour’s kickoff event earlier in the day in Palm Beach County.
At the event, speakers hammered home how Roe v. Wade was overturned with the help of conservative justices nominated by Trump.
Couple in Erie says Harris needs to visit their bellwether Pennsylvania county
Mary Sparks and her husband Mike Sparks are hoping Harris will hold a campaign event in Erie County, Pennsylvania, a key part of the battleground state.
“She really does need to come to Erie,” Mary Sparks told NBC News.
“Hillary [Clinton] didn’t make the trip in the prior years — Bill Clinton made the trip to Erie — and unfortunately, she lost in Erie County,” Mike Sparks said. “And I feel that you need to get here and talk to all the people and tell us what you’re going to do.”
Walz is scheduled to visit Erie on Thursday.
Mary Sparks said the energy in Erie towards Harris is “positive,” and that she thinks Harris’ chances of winning the county are “very high.”
She told NBC News that her neighbor put a Trump sign up and it inspired her to put a Harris sign in her window because “she needs to be represented.”
Judge bars Trump campaign from using 'Hold On, I'm Coming' by Isaac Hayes
A federal judge in Atlanta ruled today that Trump's campaign could not use musician Isaac Hayes' song "Hold On, I'm Coming" during campaign events, in response to a lawsuit from Hayes' estate.
Hayes' estate sued the Trump campaign and others last month, arguing that they did not have permission to use the song and had infringed on copyright.
The judge, Thomas W. Thrash, Jr., ordered the campaign to stop playing the song but did not grant a request to force Trump's campaign to take down videos featuring the music.
Ronald Coleman, an attorney for Trump, said that Thrash's injunction was with respect to future use, and that the campaign had already voluntarily agreed to stop playing Hayes' music.
Coleman said Thrash's decision to allow videos with Hayes' music in the background to stay up was due to their political free speech, and that Trump's legal team was "pleased with this outcome."
"The campaign and the President had already ceased using the song," Coleman said. "We’re very gratified that the court recognized the First Amendment issues at stake and didn’t order a takedown of existing videos."
The Trump campaign has said it had a license to play the music through an agreement with BMI and ASCAP.
Other musicians and singers have said Trump does not have their permission to play their songs at campaign events, including ABBA, Beyoncé, Céline Dion, The Foo Fighters, The Rolling Stones and The Village People, whose songs “YMCA” and “Macho Man” are staples at Trump rallies.
Bob Casey says union bill is important enough to change Senate voting rules
Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., told a crowd of supporters at a campaign event today that if the Senate is unable to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act — a major pro-union bill — then “we ought to change the Senate rules to pass [it] with 51 votes.”
He said the Senate’s 60-vote rule acts as “an impediment to progress,” and that it's the reason the Senate has not been able to pass legislation like a background check bill.
"I realize that if we’re in the minority and we change the rules, we won’t like that on some days. But I don’t think the usual or traditional rationale for getting 60 votes applies any longer,” Casey said, adding, “we’ve reached a point where that so much is held up.”
Democrats hold a slim majority in the Senate, where 60 votes are often needed to advance legislation.
Casey told NBC News today that he's been a proponent of killing the 60-vote threshold “for a couple of years.”
In 2017, Casey was one of 30 Senate Democrats who signed a letter in favor of keeping the threshold in place.
Judge rejects Trump’s second bid to move New York hush money case to federal court
A federal judge today denied former Trump’s second and last ditch bid to transfer his New York hush money case to federal court.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York found that there was no good cause to grant Trump’s lawyers permission to even file a motion.
The judge’s order said that in arguing “good cause” to move the case, Trump primarily argued that the state judge presiding over the criminal case, Juan Merchan, is biased against him and that the U.S. Supreme Court’s immunity ruling from July presents a valid federal defense for the hush money case.
Harris eyes tenfold boost in tax relief for small business startups
Harris is announcing a new policy plan that her campaign said would aim to boost small business applications by expanding tax deductions for startup expenses tenfold from $5,000 to $50,000, according to a Harris campaign official, who requested anonymity to reveal details of a still-unreleased proposal.
She’ll also seek to cut red tape “like wasting time and money on filing taxes or needing excessive occupational licenses across state lines to expand,” said the official.
Harris’ goal is to boost small business applications to 25 million in her first term, up from 19 million so far during the Biden administration, according to government statistics from mid-August. The Harris official said it’s “part of a concentrated strategy to take Harris’ economic agenda directly to voters on the airwaves, and to contrast it with Trump’s plans to give billionaires and big corporations a tax cut.”
The Trump campaign panned Harris' proposal.
“It’s laughable that Kamala Haris is trying to pitch herself as good for the economy when she has been a fierce advocate for Bidenomics, which is crushing small business owners,” Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokesperson, told NBC News.
“She could fix these problems right now as vice president, but she hasn’t.”
