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What's happening today on the campaign trail:
- Vice President Kamala Harris is in Pittsburgh, where she will prepare for next week’s debate. After extended negotiations, she and former President Donald Trump agreed to the rules for the debate, which will use the same format as the June face-off between Trump and President Joe Biden.
- Trump returned to his former home state to deliver remarks at the Economic Club of New York where he announced he would adopt an Elon Musk-backed government spending plan if re-elected. He also appeared virtually at the Republican Jewish Coalition annual leadership summit in Las Vegas.
- Their running mates also hit the trail today. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio blasted the late Sen. John McCain's son for backing Harris in comments to a crowd in Phoenix, while Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz spent the day in Pennsylvania and delivered remarks in Erie this evening.
- Biden's son Hunter Biden entered a guilty plea to all the federal tax charges against him. His sentencing is scheduled for December. Meanwhile, the judge in Trump's election interference case in Washington, D.C., has yet to set a trial date.
Asian Americans have largest voter registration increase, new analysis shows
Sarah Poontong, 49, became a citizen late last year and one of the first things she did was register to vote.
She’s part of a notable trend — Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders have had the largest increase in voter registration of any racial group in the country from January to June, compared to the same period during the 2020 election cycle. That’s according to analysis first shared with NBC News from the civic engagement nonprofit APIAVote and the research company TargetSmart.
How some of the internet’s most popular pro-Trump pundits ended up as paid messengers for Russian propaganda
The video introducing Tenet Media hit many common conservative tropes: Mainstream media couldn’t be trusted. Free speech was under attack. Independent and uncensored voices were sorely needed.
It featured the six commentators who would be the faces of the operation, already some of the most-followed voices in the increasingly crowded and influential world of online conservative punditry. Over a dramatic electronic music track, each of them offered a brief reason why Tenet was needed now more than ever.
Walz lays into Trump and the Republican Party with some of his harshest campaign rhetoric
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz used some of his sharpest language on the campaign trail Thursday in remarks going after both former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
Speaking at a rally in Erie, Pa., Walz borrowed a line from Josh Shapiro, the state’s Democratic governor by saying that “whenever Donald Trump’s talking about America, he’s s--- talking America.”
Judge Juan Merchan expected to rule tomorrow on Trump's bid to delay sentencing
The Manhattan District Attorney's office said in a letter to an appeals court tonight that Judge Juan Merchan is expected to rule tomorrow on Trump's lawyers' motion to postpone his sentencing until after the election.
Trump had been scheduled to face a sentencing hearing on Sept. 18, but the former president asked for it to be pushed back.
Deep divisions in battleground Pennsylvania over proposed sale of U.S. Steel to Japanese company
It’s one the few things Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump agree on: opposing the sale of U.S. Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel.
But the proposed deal is shattering party loyalty in parts of western Pennsylvania where some steelworkers feel they’re being used as political talking points.
Vance on Georgia shooting: ‘I don’t like that this is a fact of life’
During a campaign rally in Phoenix this evening, Vance said that the school shooting in Georgia this week that left four people dead was "awful," and he referred to the shooter, identified as a 14-year-old boy, as "an absolute barbarian."
“No parent should have to deal with this. No child should have to deal with this. And yes, after holding these folks up in prayer and giving them our sympathies, because that's what people deserve in a time of tragedy, then we have to think about how to make this less common," Vance said before arguing that strict gun laws were not the solution.
"I don't like that this is a fact of life," Vance added.
The vice presidential nominee vouched for efforts to "bolster" security at schools which he described as "soft targets."
"If these psychos are going to have to go after our kids, we've got to be prepared for it. We don't have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality that we live in. We got to deal with it," Vance said.
When reached for comment about the remarks, Vance spokesperson William Martin criticized Harris on school safety and said her “weak, failed, and dangerously liberal agenda makes her unfit for office.”
Walz called Vance's comments "pathetic," saying on X that kids "deserve better.
Harris also criticized Vance, saying on X that shootings "are not just a fact of life" and calling for action.
Vance's comments echo those of some Republican lawmakers in response to past school shootings, woh have urged for beefing up school security and in some cases arming teachers in an effort to thwart school shootings.
Republican Jewish voters explain why they back Trump
At the Republican Jewish Coalition Summit, an annual gathering of Jewish community leaders, donors and GOP politicians, voters told NBC News why they're backing Trump this November.
“We're talking about somebody who has had a record of success in everything he's done," said Bill Cohen, who's from Sioux City, Iowa. "Whether it was protecting Israel, whether it was straightening things out with the United Nations, we could go through a whole list of 50 things of why he why he was good for the United States," the 77-year-old added.
Rosalie Thompson, a retiree from Miami Beach, Florida, said Trump's record speaks for itself.
“The two candidates have a record, and Donald Trump's record is better for the economy, for the country, for the free world,” she said.
But not all of the attendees were on board the Trump train. Madison Friedman, 32, from Los Angeles said that as of now, he's sitting this election out.
"I would say that you have to really love the candidates you’re voting for," said the software consultant. "I’m still learning about both of them for now."
Putin says Ukraine’s incursion failed; claims he supports Harris in U.S. election, citing her ‘infectious’ laugh
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Ukraine’s gamble to seize his country’s territory has backfired by boosting his own military’s advance, a boast he paired with a teasing claim of support for Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming U.S. election.
Speaking at an economic forum in the far-eastern city of Vladivostok on Thursday, he said it was the “sacred duty” of the Russian army to do everything to “throw the enemy out” of the border region of Kursk and protect its citizens after last month’s stunning assault.
Yet, Putin also said that Moscow’s main goal remained capturing the Donbas region, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland where Russian troops have been pushing forward for months.
Despite the family drama, Tim Walz’s mother says she believes her son will be VP
Darlene Walz, the mother of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, remains supportive of her son’s bid to be vice president, even as other members of the family are divided, she told NBC News in a brief phone conversation today.
Darlene Walz made clear that she has grown tired of the public scrutiny of her family and believes her son “is going to be in the White House.”
Familial divisions over Walz’s role as the Democratic vice presidential nominee came into public view last week after a Facebook post and several subsequent comments from his estranged older brother, Jeff, were amplified by multiple media outlets.
Former Trump chief of staff John Kelly explains why he criticized Trump's Medal of Freedom comments
Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly elaborated today on why he criticized the former president's comments about the Presidential Medal of Freedom being "better" than the Medal of Honor.
Speaking at a Colorado State University event, Kelly said "when someone says that one medal is more important than the other, I just corrected the record."
"I believe the president had it wrong, and we just needed to correct that," he added.
Kelly also emphasized that Medal of Honor recipients "did something that was irrationally brave, that the assumption would be when he or she did it, that you would be killed. That's kind of the level."
Kelly had previously rejected Trump's comments about the medals to CNN, saying that the medals are "not even close. No equivalency of any kind."
