For months, NBC News has been interviewing undecided voters in the critical battleground states who will ultimately decide who will win the presidential election. NBC News’ Dasha Burns went back to undecided voters our team met earlier this year to ask whether they had reached decisions on whom to vote for or whether they will vote at all.
Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally overshadowed by his allies’ crude and racist remarks Trump delivered his standard lines on topics from immigration to the economy tonight at a packed rally at Madison Square Garden, an event that was designed to be the start of his closing argument nine days out from Election Day at a venue off the battleground map that he has wanted to campaign at for years.
But Trump’s remarks in his hometown, New York City, which went for more than an hour, were overshadowed by comments made by warm-up speakers in the roughly five hours before his prime-time address. They included a comedian’s racist jokes about Latinos and Black Americans and were condemned by multiple Republican members of Congress, as well as speakers who used increasingly inflammatory language to describe Harris.
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Voters say they think celebrity endorsements will help get-out-the-vote effortsVoters at a John Legend canvassing event in Philadelphia said they think celebrity endorsements could play a role in get-out-the-vote efforts.
“His tone was really, like, inspiring, so I feel like I’ll go door-knocking because of that,” said 18-year-old Anike Akinfolarin.
“To see somebody that you, like, look up to and aspire to be to be interested, to be as interested in this election, it just makes it want to be like, ‘OK, yeah, I do want to vote. I do want to get involved,'” said 19-year-old Odelia Akaho.
Voter Jodi Schatz said she thinks it makes “a difference when a celebrity has some personal experience related to some of the issues,” pointing to Legend’s talking about reproductive rights. Legend and his wife, Chrissy Teigen, have discussed Teigen’s having an abortion after she experienced severe pregnancy complications.
“I think that when you have a celebrity that can speak about how candidates’ policies and positions affect them personally and that then can translate for other people to see, I think that’s important,” Schatz said.
Trump attempts to put forth a message of hope as his allies weigh a tight raceTrump offered his supporters and allies a message of hope tonight, promising to “fix” what he said his opponent, Harris, had “broken” and warning that a Harris presidency could lead to a military draft.
Even amid palpable enthusiasm from close allies was the sense that the race continues to sit on a knife’s edge. From the stage, however, Tucker Carlson offered a more resolute stance, saying to rousing applause, “Donald Trump’s going to win.”
Harris and Trump campaigns broadcast dueling TV ads during Eagles gameThe Harris and Trump campaigns used the Philadelphia Eagles’ game today as an opportunity to broadcast their campaign messages to the residents of battleground Pennsylvania.
Harris’ campaign aired an ad titled “Philly vs. Trump,” which uses negative comments Trump has made about the city. Meanwhile, Trump featured video from the July 13 assassination attempt in an ad titled “Never Quit.”
Trump says he would let anti-vaccine advocate RFK Jr. ‘go wild on health’Trump said during his rally that he would let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “go wild” on public health issues if elected.
“I’m going to let him go wild on health,” Trump said. “I’m going to let him go wild on the food. I’m going to let him go wild on medicines.”
Kennedy, who at first sought the presidency as a Democrat before he endorsed Trump later in the cycle, is an outspoken anti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theorist.
Musician John Legend says he’s ‘certain’ Black men will show up for Harris amid signs Trump is making inroadsMusician John Legend spent the day campaigning alongside Democratic Sen. Bob Casey in Philadelphia today. In an interview, Legend said that out of all the songs in his discography, the one that represents this election the most is “Glory.”
About recent polling that has shown Black men shifting toward Trump, Legend said he was “certain” they would show up for Harris during the election.
“I believe Black men are going to show up and make the right decision. I believe they’re going to show up for their communities. To protect their families and their communities from another term of Donald Trump,” he said.
Legend cited abortion and reproductive rights as key issues for him and said the path to victory runs through Philadelphia, where he went to college.
Asked about the importance of celebrity endorsements in this election, Legend said the “most important thing is our candidates.”
“We are well-known people, and hopefully we’ll get enough attention on the candidates so that they can go out there and win these elections. But we know that the important work is what they do and they’re representing the people and they’re listening to the people. And I believe that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and Sen. Casey have great plans for the future of this nation,” he said.
Melania Trump makes rare campaign appearanceFormer first lady Melania Trump made a rare appearance to speak at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally.
It is her first campaign rally speech this cycle. She attended the Republican National Convention in the summer.
She introduced her husband as he took the stage.
Elected Republicans condemn Trump rally speaker’s derogatory remarks about Puerto RicoRep. María Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., and Sen. Rick Scott, R- Fla., condemned a comedian at the Trump rally who made derogatory comments about Puerto Rico.
“Disgusted by @TonyHinchcliffe’s racist comment calling Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage,'” Salazar said on X.
“This rhetoric does not reflect GOP values,” she continued. “Puerto Rico sent 48,000+ soldiers to Vietnam, with over 345 Purple Hearts awarded. This bravery deserves respect. Educate yourself!”
Scott also chimed in, saying: “This joke bombed for a reason. It’s not funny and it’s not true.”
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe said during the Trump rally: “I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
Top Trump allies spotted at MSG rallySpotted in the arena in Madison Square Garden: top Trump allies and supporters such as hedge fund chief Scott Bessent, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Trump administration appointee Callista Gingrich sat on the floor by the stage, while Trump’s top aides Chris LaCivita, Susie Wiles and Corey Lewandowski circulated in the upper levels.
Also seen hobnobbing with allies were Hope Hicks and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
Trump aides say he will focus remarks on his economic and border agendaTrump will focus his remarks on selling his agenda on the economy and the border, aides say.
Brian Hughes, a senior adviser, told NBC News that Trump would use his remarks to deliver a message that offers a forward-looking vision. Harris “is looking backwards,” Hughes said.
But Trump is known to veer off script in digressions he likes to call “the weave.” Lately, he has ventured into profanity-laced attacks on Harris and mused over the size of the late golfer Arnold Palmer’s genitals.
Trump MSG rally attendees say Harris missed an opportunity by not picking Josh Shapiro as her running mateInside the arena at Madison Square Garden, two attendees from New Jersey, ages 19 and 20, said that other than Trump they were most excited to hear Vance speak.
“He’s sharp and straight to the point,” said Yoni Buckwald, 20.
Buckwald and Israel Schwartz, 19, are Orthodox Jews and said they support Trump in part because of his staunch support for Israel.
Schwartz called it an error for Harris to have picked Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as a running mate, saying Shapiro could have bolstered her standing with Jewish voters while praising Biden’s “unprecedented” support for Israel.
Still, both said they appreciate Trump’s outreach to Muslim Americans as part of an effort to grow the GOP coalition.
As Trump courts their votes, comedian at his rally makes racist jokes about Latinos and Puerto Rico Reporting from Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden
As Trump courts the community’s vote, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe crudely mocked Latinos — a key constituency for any winning campaign in 2024 — during the pre-program of the Madison Square Garden rally.
With nine days left until the election, Trump gathered scores of his most popular surrogates and allies to rally thousands in midtown Manhattan, a reliably deep-blue area.
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Trump is set to speak at a rally in New York City. NBC News’ Vaughn Hillyard reports from Madison Square Garden, where police have tightened security around the arena.
AOC criticizes Biden on Gaza while urging progressives to voteAfter playing a live game of Madden NFL 25 with Walz, Ocasio-Cortez continued her Twitch stream with an attempt to appeal to progressives who say they’re hesitant to vote — particularly those who have expressed concern about the plight of Palestinians.
She criticized the Biden administration’s handling of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza: “The way that they have carried on this is horrific, ill-advised, bad for the United States, obviously horrific for Palestinians, bad for Israelis, etc.”
But she said that rather than make voting decisions “based on a lens of punishment,” she would rather vote “based on a lens of power.”
Ocasio-Cortez urged voters who are critical of both parties to prioritize an electoral outcome that would enable them to build political power under “less hostile conditions.”
“And someone said here [in the chat], ‘Not a single Palestinian will benefit from not voting blue.’ It’s true,” she said. “And at the very least, what we are able to do with a trifecta is empower the dissidents within the Democratic Party in order to try to shift the momentum on things.”
Trump rally speaker calls Harris ‘the devil’ and ‘the Antichrist’ before announcing mayoral campaignDavid Rem, a New Yorker who told a story of an act of kindness Trump’s father performed for his family, described Harris as “the devil” and “the Antichrist” from the stage atump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.
“Can you imagine Kamala Harris performing a random, kind, generous act like that?” he said. “Never, never, ever.”
A rallygoer apparently then shouted that Harris was “the devil.”
“In fact, she is the devil,” Rem said. “Whoever screamed that out, she is the Antichrist.”
Rem then announced he is running for mayor of New York in next year’s election.
“I decided I’m going to make a run for mayor of New York City,” he said, adding, “We need to make New York great again.”
Tim Walz joins AOC for football Twitch streamTim Walz is talking life lessons from football over a game of Madden NFL 25 with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. Waltz joined Ocasio-Cortez for a Twitch stream ahead of his rally today in Nevada.
“Everybody wants to win or hopes they’ll win, but that’s not a plan. You got to prepare for it,” Walz said, drawing a parallel between his first Madden game and the coming election.
“You don’t have to win the game yourself. Just do your job,” said Walz, a former football coach. “You’re looking at this game right here, that right guard, he just needs to do his job and trust the guy on both sides of him. And I think that’s like things in life.”
As the two chatted over virtual football, Ocasio-Cortez and Walz shared stories about gaming while discussing voter engagement.
“So often, political conversations are so fraught and they’re so high-temperature,” Ocasio-Cortez noted before the game. “But the way that I think you can actually have a honest conversation is by having a relaxed setting to talk about serious things.”
Circuit court denies Virginia’s attempt to purge voter rolls close to the electionHarris unveils her policy plan for Puerto RicoHarris today unveiled her policy plan for Puerto Rico, uploading a video on social media outlining her plans and adding a section about Puerto Rico to her website.
Among the stops Harris made in Philadelphia today was a Puerto Rican restaurant, where she touted the release of the policy plan.
“Puerto Rico is home to some of the most talented, innovative and ambitious people in our nation, and Puerto Ricans deserve a president who sees and invests in that strength,” she told diners.
She added that, if elected, she would “create a new Puerto Rico opportunity economy task force where the federal government will work with the private sector, with nonprofits and community leaders, to foster economic growth and create thousands of new, good-paying jobs in Puerto Rico, including for our young people.”
Harris campaign chair expresses confidence in early voting dataHarris campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon appeared this morning on “Inside with Jen Psaki,” where she expressed optimism that Harris “is on track to win” as early voting kicks off across the battleground states.
“We are very confident we’re going to win this thing. And it’s not just because we want to win — it’s because what we’re seeing in the numbers,” she said.
Dillon said her confidence is fueled in part by the campaign’s analysis of early voting data, particularly concerning high turnout rates among low-propensity voters.
“More of our people that don’t traditionally vote are showing up,” O’Malley Dillon said. “In Clark County, Nevada, for instance, where Las Vegas is, we have seen higher youth turnout in the last two days than we’ve seen in any other point this cycle.”
“We’re seeing strong turnout. Our margins are strong. And the folks that we’re focused on, those lower-propensity voters that don’t always vote, they’re tuning in, and they’re showing up at a higher level in support of the vice president,” she added.
It was O’Malley Dillon’s first cable news interview since Harris chose her to lead the campaign this summer.
In relaxed podcast interview, Vance criticizes NATO allies and Harris’ laughDuring a podcast taping with conservative comedian Tim Dillon, Vance, clearly relaxed and speaking more freely than at public campaign events, made several inflammatory comments about foreign policy and Harris.
In likening the war in Ukraine to the potential for conflict in Taiwan, Vance said Ukraine is not as important to the U.S. because it “makes a lot of the computer chips.” Prompted by Dillon on what caused the war in Ukraine, Vance posed — and answered — his own question: “Did American diplomacy actually create conflict instead of diffusing conflict? In my view, it did.”
Later in the discussion Vance also took aim at American allies in Europe as Dillon questioned the U.S.’ relationship with NATO. “I mean, look, if I was a European country, in some ways, I would feel kind of pathetic. … Because these guys, they don’t even have their own countries anymore. They just do whatever the United States tells them to do,” he said.
He went further with rhetoric in the interview than he often does in public campaign appearances, and he made several remarks that run contrary to the constructed “Midwestern nice” and relatable persona he puts on for most media appearances.
Vance often attacks Harris on the stump, but his comments with Dillon took a particularly gendered tack. Right out of the gate, Vance took to mocking Harris for her laugh, describing it as awkward and not genuine.
“I’ve tried to, like, put my finger on what it is about Kamala Harris’, like, the very fraudulent laugh that I find so off-putting, and it’s like the laugh of somebody who just made you really uncomfortable,” Vance said.
Later in the conversation, Vance described Harris as not fun and generally unlikable — though he noted he has met her in person only once.
“There’s too much of a schoolmarm thing going on. I just don’t know,” he said.
The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Harris paints a contrast with Trump in PhiladelphiaAfter a service at Church of Christian Compassion in West Philadelphia, Harris told reporters she hoped to meet with voters from all over the city and speak “with them about what we all have in common and a collective desire to bring the country together and to set a tone that really is about unifying our country around common desires and challenges.”
“This obviously will be in stark contrast to Donald Trump,” she added, “who increasingly is using dark and divisive language even more than he has done in the past.”
Taking questions from reporters, Harris also pointed out the contrast between what she says her presidency and Trump’s would look like.
“Just imagine the Oval Office on Jan. 20. It’s going to be one of two people,” Harris said. “If it’s Donald Trump … it will be him sitting at that desk stewing over his enemies list. He is full of grievance. He is full of of dark language that is about retribution and revenge.”
She added: “The American people have a choice. It’s either going to be that or it’ll be me there, focused on my to-do list, focused on the American people and getting through that list of goals and plans to improve the lives of the American people.”
Trump campaign ad featuring assassination attempt video to air todayTrump’s first ad featuring video of the July 13 assassination attempt will run nationally during the third quarter of the Philadelphia Eagles-Cincinnati Bengals game today, a campaign adviser told NBC News.
It’s a two-minute spot that amounts to a closing argument. And while there’s contrast with Harris, it is largely positive about Trump.
Sen. Bernie Sanders slams Elon Musk’s support of TrumpSen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., slammed tech mogul Elon Musk’s support for Trump’s campaign today after a Wall Street Journal article revealed that Musk has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate,” Sanders said on NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
“What really interests me is if, God forbid, Trump would win whether it would be Elon Musk running the government and Trump working for him or the other way around,” Sanders added.
He also blasted Musk for campaigning for Trump even though he has business before the federal government.
“The idea that you have somebody like Musk, who has massive amounts of federal contracts, campaigning hard, putting huge amounts of money into Trump’s campaign — man, if there’s ever been a conflict of interest, that’s it,” he said.
Harris and Walz to hit every battleground state in the next four days, campaign says+2
Harris and Walz are set to campaign in each of the seven battleground states over the next four days, the campaign announced.
Some of the rallies will also feature performances by artists including Maggie Rogers, Gracie Abrams and Remi Wolf.
Tomorrow, Harris and Walz will campaign in Michigan. On Tuesday, Harris will deliver a “closing argument” speech in Washington, D.C., and Walz will campaign in Georgia. On Wednesday, Harris will hit North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, while Walz campaigns in North Carolina. On Thursday, Harris will head to Nevada and Arizona, and Walz will travel to Pennsylvania and Michigan, according to the campaign.
Harris to campaign in neighborhoods across PhiladelphiaHarris will hit a series of neighborhoods in Philadelphia, including historically Black and Latino areas, a senior campaign official said. The official described the visit as more intimate and interactive.
She is set to visit a Black church, a barbershop, a Puerto Rican restaurant and a youth basketball facility, according to her campaign.
Philadelphia is a deep-blue part of a crucial swing state, and Democrats will need to ensure high turnout in the city in order to offset expected Republican victories in more rural counties.
Trump set to rally in deep-blue New York CityJust over a week before Election Day, Trump will hold a rally in New York City at Madison Square Garden. New York City is a Democratic stronghold, and the state is not considered a swing state.
His campaign has released a list of more than two dozen speakers and performers who will also take the stage, including Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tucker Carlson.
Source : NBC News