August 12, 2024, presidential campaign news | CNN Politics (2024)

Most of the falsehoods Donald Trump uttered in his conversation with Elon Musk on X on Monday were claims that have been repeatedly debunked before, some for years.

Inflation: Trump said, “I think we have the worst inflation we’ve had in 100 years. They say it’s 48 years, I don’t believe it.”

Facts First:Trump framed this as an opinion, but it’s baseless – wrong in two different ways. First, even when the inflation ratehit its Biden-era peak of 9.1% in June 2022, that 9.1% rate was the highest since 1981 – between 40 and 41 years prior, certainly not “100 years” and not even “48 years.” Second, inflation hasdeclined sharplysince the June 2022 peak, and the most recent available rate at the time he spoke,for July 2024, was 3.2%– a rate that, the Biden presidency aside, wasexceeded as recently as 2011.

Harris and prisoners: Trump claimed “(Harris) wants to release all the prisoners that are in detention, and some of these guys are really bad. That just came out today.”

Facts First:This is false. There is no basis for the claim that Harris “wants to release all the prisoners that are in detention.” Trump appeared to be referring tonews storiesin conservative media that reported that Harris hadsaidin 2019, while unsuccessfully running in the Democratic presidential primary, that shewanted to close privately-run immigration detention centers.

Migration numbers: Trump claimed that, under Biden and Harris, “you have millions of people coming in a month.”

Facts First:This is false.There has not been any month under the Biden-Harris administration where even close to “millions” of people entered the country illegally. In the peak month during this administration for what the government calls border “encounters,” December 2023,there were 370,890 encounters. Even if you factor in so-called “gotaways,” people who evaded the Border Patrol to sneak into the country, there is no basis for the claim that “millions” of people are entering in a single month.

Trump’s tax cuts: Trump repeated his claim that his signature tax cuts, in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, were “the largest tax cut” ever provided.

Facts First:Trump iswrong. Analyses have found that his tax cut law was not the largest in history, either in percentage of gross domestic product or in inflation-adjusted dollars.

Multiple lies: Trump also made false and misleading claims about global warming, the Biden administration and Trump’s legal cases, the situation before Right to Try, military equipment and Afghanistan, China’s purchases of Iranian oil, Iran and funding for “terror” groups, Europe trade, Ukraine aid, the 2020 election, deportations to Central America, migration and “the Congo,” Venezuela, and crime.

Read the full list of fact checks.

The world’s richest man and its once-and-possibly future most-powerful man agreed on almost everything.

Tech titan Elon Muskthrew open his X platformon Monday night, offering Donald Trump a pipeline free of fact checks for his falsehoods, conspiracy theories and extremism as he tries to slow the rise of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

The chat represented yet another extraordinary chapter in a presidential campaign that has defied logic with its stunning twists in recent weeks, including an assassination attempt against Trump and President Joe Biden’s ending of his reelection bid.

The former president has been floundering, struggling to cope with the new Democratic nominee’s soaring start. At times, during their expansive chat, Musk seemed to be using the power of his profile and platform to coach Trump on how to mount a better argument against Harris.

“She’s a believer in being radical left,” Trump said at one point of a Democratic foe who has erased his polling advantage in only three weeks as a candidate. And the former president, who attempted to overturn an election he lost, baselessly claimed that Biden had been illegally ousted to make way for Harris.

Musk agreed with Trump that Harris was a radical leftist and flattered his guest by implying that he was strong and his Democratic opponents were weak. He referred to America’s enemies and said:

Musk has already endorsed Trump, and he was leaving no doubt on Monday night that he wants to see him win a second term.“You are the path to prosperity. And I think Kamala is the opposite,” he told Trump.

Read the full story.

Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who owns X, spoke for more than two hours on the social media platform on Monday night.

The former president fielded friendly questions that steered him toward campaign talking points, while slamming Vice President Kamala Harris’ stances on the economy and immigration.

Here are some highlights:

The Harris campaign has reacted to former President Donald Trump’s interview with X owner Elon Musk on Monday night.

Trump and Musk spoke for more than two hours after the event was delayed due to technical problems that Musk said were caused by an attack that overwhelmed the company’s servers.

Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk heaped praise on each other during a conversation on X that lasted more than two hours, as the former president fielded friendly questions that steered him toward his campaign talking points.

Musk endorsed Trump last month, which the presidential candidate on Monday said “meant a lot.”

The event was delayed due to tech issues that Musk said were caused by an attack that overwhelmed the company’s servers.

Musk suggested Trump should, if reelected, form a “government efficiency commission that just tries to make the spending sensible so that the country lives within its means,” and said he’d like to be part of it.

“I’d love it,”Trump said.

Trump later said he needed Musk’s help fulfilling one of his main campaign promises: eliminating the Department of Education.

Musk asked about regulation, immigration, government spending and what he described as “the risk of global thermonuclear warfare.” Trump stuck to his campaign talking points and was not challenged by Musk on any of his claims.

At several points in the chat, Trump’s speech sounded as if he had a lisp or was slurring his words, which attracted attention online. When asked whether there was an explanation, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said: “Must be your hearing.”

In a live conversation between Donald Trump and Elon Musk on X, the former president repeated his criticism of Vice President Kamala Harris.

A federal judge ruled that North Carolina’s elections board must place Cornel West on the state’s ballot in November, overruling a decision by the board to reject the independent presidential candidate’s petition.

In July, the North Carolina State Board of Elections rejected West’s ballot access petition over questions surrounding the legitimacy of the signatures submitted by paid petition circulators with Republican ties working outside of the West campaign to boost his ballot access operation.

The board investigated signatures submitted on behalf of West and found that 21 out of 49 petition signers said either they did not sign the petitions or could not recall if they had.

At the time, the board’s chair Alan Hirsch said he had “no confidence” West’s signature gathering was “done legitimately.”

After the decision, a group of West supporters filed a lawsuit challenging the board’s ruling in federal court, arguing that blocking West from the ballot infringes on their First Amendment and 14th Amendment rights.

On Monday, US District Judge Terrence Boyle ordered the board to certify the Justice For All Party, a minor party West’s campaign used to ease ballot access criteria in the state, and condemned the board’s decision to block West’s petition.

The ruling now puts West on the ballot in a key battleground state as his campaign targets other highly contested states in the coming weeks. West has also filed for ballot access in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Maine dating back to July.

West has qualified for the ballot in six states, including North Carolina. He’s also gained ballot access in South Carolina, Alaska, Vermont, Oregon, and Colorado.

Former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk ended their conversation on the social media platform X on Monday after speaking for more than two hours.

The former president praised Musk for the amount of users listening to the pair’s conversation, saying, “I hope you don’t get nervous because you’ve got a lot of people listening to you right now.”

Trump, after pausing, mulled how many users were listening, saying, “I think you’re gonna be 60 or 70” million.

When he made those remarks, around 10:25 p.m. ET — a little more than 90 minutes into the conversation — the platform showed roughly 1.3 million users listening.

“I congratulate you,” he told Musk, before jokingly asking, “Do I get paid for this, or not?”

While wrapping up the conversation, Trump called Musk an “amazing guy” and a “great inspiration,” adding that “we’ll do it again sometime.”

Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz wave as they board Air Force Two on August 7

Elon Musk called Vice President Kamala Harris “far left,” while former President Donald Trump called his 2024 rival a “radical-left lunatic” on Monday.

Trump interrupted, calling Harris “worse than Bernie Sanders,” the progressive independent senator from Vermont.

Trump then attacked Harris for choosing Tim Walz as her running mate, taking aim at Minnesota’s Democratic governor for signing into law progressive policies in state — particularly a bill last year that mandates that school districts and charter schools provide free menstrual products in all restrooms, for both girls and boys, regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12.

“Well, her running mate approved, signed into legislation, tampons in boys bathrooms,” Trump said.

“Yeah, that’s weird,” Musk responded.

“And that means she believes that too,” Trump said.

“Yeah, that’s not OK,” Musk added.

Trump said that “a lot of people thought she’d pick sort of the opposite, but she picked an anti-Israel, radical-left person,” referring to Walz.

Former President Donald Trump said it “doesn’t make sense” that the United States doesn’t have high-speed trains in an interview with Elon Musk on X.

“The bullet trains… they go unbelievably fast, unbelievably comfortable, with no problems. And we don’t have anything like that in this country, not even close,” Trump said. He suggested the way to implement this was through high speed tunnels, a concept that’s part of Musk’s The Boring Company.

Under the Trump administration in 2019, the Department of Transportation canceled nearly $1 billion in grant funds for California’s high-speed rail system.

At several points throughout Donald Trump’s Monday interview with Elon Musk, the former president’s speech sounded as if he had a lisp or was slurring his words, attracting attention online.

When asked whether there was an explanation, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said: “Must be your hearing.”

Elon Musk defended the oil and gas industries in his conversation with former President Donald Trump on X, arguing that a significant increase in carbon dioxide could make breathing difficult but that maintaining current levels of greenhouse gas release will be sustainable for decades.

It’s a stunning — if not new — argument from Musk, the CEO of Tesla, who is the most prominent clean-energy executive in the world. Musk said the industries and its workers shouldn’t be “demonized,” and immediate action to switch from fossil fuels is unnecessary.

At the same time, Musk defended his electric vehicle business, which has come under attack from Trump during his campaign.

But Trump said several times throughout the interview that “nuclear warming” posed a bigger threat than “global warming.” It’s not clear what Trump meant, although he later clarified that nuclear power “is the biggest threat.”

Musk disagreed, defending nuclear electricity generation, arguing that its safety is widely misunderstood.

“It’s not as scary as people think,” Musk said.

Trump appeared to concede the point, suggesting nuclear power had to be called something else.

“You’re right,” Trump said. “Maybe they’ll have to change the name. We’ll name it after you or something. It has a branding problem.”

Former President Donald Trump, during a Monday interview with Elon Musk, repeated his claim that he will close the Department of Education if he is reelected.

Trump told Musk on X that one of his first acts would be to “close up Department of Education, move education back to the states,” adding that “of the 50 [states], I would bet that 35 would do great.”

Trump made the same proposal in a campaign video last year, pushing the same goal as other Republicans who made closing the Department of Education a priority during the 2024 GOP primary.

But eliminating the US Department of Education would not necessarily give any more power to states over K-12 schools. While the federal agency helps the president execute education policies, the power to set curriculum, establish schools and determine enrollment eligibility already lies with the states and local school boards.

Trump has been floating the idea of eliminating the Department of Education since his 2016 presidential campaign. When Trump was president, his administration proposedmerging the Education and Labor departmentsinto one federal agency as part of a larger plan to restructure the government. The proposal needed approval from Congress and was never implemented. Trump, as president, also tried to cut billions of dollars from the Education Department’s budget.

CNN’s Kate SullivanandKatie Lobosco contributed to this report.

Robert F. KennedyJrspeaks at Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville, Tennessee, on July 26.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. qualified for the ballot in Oregon, the state’s elections division announced on Monday.

Kennedy announced last month that 50,000 signatures were submitted to Oregon’s elections office on behalf of the We the People Party, a minor party established by Kennedy’s campaign to gain ballot access in several states. New statewide minor parties are required to submit 29,294 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot in Oregon.

On Monday, Oregon’s elections division announced that Kennedy submitted enough valid signatures and deemed the We the People Party a valid political party in Oregon.

Including Oregon, Kennedy has gained ballot access in 17 states. He’s also on the ballot in Vermont, Colorado, New Mexico, Tennessee, Minnesota, South Carolina, New Jersey, Texas, Oklahoma, Delaware, California, Nebraska, North Carolina, Michigan, Hawaii and Utah. In total, Kennedy is eligible for 220 electoral votes.

Earlier Monday, a New York judge ruled that Kennedy’s ballot access petition in the state is invalid, delivering the first major blow to the independent presidential candidate’s bid for nationwide ballot access.

Former President Donald Trump slammed California and complimented Texas when it came to business, referencing Chevron leaving moving its headquarters out of California to Houston.

“I saw where you left California and you moved to Texas. Texas does a great job,” Trump said to Elon Musk on Monday.

Musk announced last month that two of his companies, SpaceX and X, formerly known as Twitter, would berelocating to Texas, as well.

Former President Donald Trump said inflation, along with the border, is what people care the most about.

“People want to hear about the economy and the fact that we can’t buy groceries … the inflation has killed them,” Trump told Elon Musk during the pair’s Monday conversation on X.

Trump also blamed President Joe Biden for the inflation crisis, which has crippled many Americans.

In 2022, US inflationhit 9.1%, its highest annual rate in more than 40 years.

“I think we have the worst inflation we’ve had in 100 years. They say it’s 48 years. I don’t believe it,” Trump said.

It can be hard to know the exact reasons why prices go up, but economists and investors have pointed to supply chain constraints during the pandemic, rising gas prices and government stimulus.

Law enforcement officers are investigating a break-in late Sunday at former President Donald Trump’s campaign office in Ashburn, Virginia, in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area.

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office said it was called around 9 p.m. Sunday for a burglary at the office, which is being leased by the Trump campaign and also operates as the headquarters of the Virginia 10th District Republican Committee.

Investigators say they have surveillance video showing the burglary suspect inside the campaign office wearing dark clothing, a dark cap and a backpack.

CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

Read the full story.

Elon Musk offered to take a role in Donald Trump’s administration helping to rein in government spending if the former president is reelected.

“I think it would be great to just have a government efficiency commission that takes a look at these things and and just ensures that the taxpayer money, the taxpayers’ hard-earned money, is spent in a good way,” Musk told Trump in a conversation streamed on X. “I’d be happy to help out on such a commission.”

Trump said he would “love it” if Musk were involved, noting the billionaire is a “great cutter,” referencing cost-cutting measures he has taken at his companies.

The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Musk and Trump had discussed a potential role for the billionaire in Trump’s administration if he’s reelected, although Musk pushed back on the report at the time.

Migrants wait in line hoping for processing from Customs and Border Patrol agents after groups arrived at Jacumba Hot Springs, California, after walking under intense heat from Mexico into the US on June 5.

Former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk discussed immigration at length during their Monday night conversation on X.

Musk, who said the US needs to limit illegal immigration, recounted his experience traveling to the southern border, saying the people he saw “did not look friendly.”

Trump repeated his familiar baseless claims that other countries are sending criminals and those with mental illness across the border. He also blamed Vice President Kamala Harris for the issues at the border, falsely claiming she had been appointed as President Joe Biden’s “border czar.”

The former president vowed, that if elected, “We’re gonna have the largest deportation in history of this country.”

Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at a campaign rally at Sunset Park on June 09, in Las Vegas.

Former President Donald Trump again hit his 2024 presidential rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, for announcing a proposal to end taxes on tips.

At a rally in Las Vegas over the weekend, Harris promised to advance policies to benefit working families,pointing to the elimination of taxeson tips as an example as the vice presidentseeks tocoalesce support from the sizable coalition of service industry workers in the key battleground state of Nevada. Trump, whofirstproposedthe idea at his own Las Vegas campaign rally in June,accused Harris of copying him.

“And by the way, they had just the opposite. You know, they had not only tax on tips, but they hired 88,000 IRS agents, and many of them were assigned to go get waitresses and caddies … on tips,” Trump told Musk.

That 88,000 number is exaggerated, CNN previously reported. The figure comes from a2021 Treasury report that estimated the Internal Revenue Service could hire 86,852 full-time employees over the course of a decade with a nearly $80 billion investment — not solely enforcement agents. And all those new employees can’t be hired overnight. The money will flow to the IRS over a 10-year period — with many of the new hires replacing staff that the IRS has already lost or is expected to lose through attrition in coming years.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team appeared to poke fun at the technical issues that plagued former President Donald Trump’s interview on X Monday night via a post on Trump’s own platform, Truth Social.

The Truth Social account for Harris’ campaign reposted comments Trump posted last year criticizing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign launch event on X that was also delayed by glitches.

“Wow! the DeSanctus TWITTER launch is a DISASTER! His whole campaign will be a disaster. WATCH!” Trump said in the Truth Social post, that was re-shared by the Harris campaign Monday night.

On X, the Harris campaign team re-shared a 2022 post from Musk in which he said “Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America.” In a series of posts at the time, Musk urged Trump not to run for re-election in 2024 and instead “hang up his hat & sail into the sunset.”

“Interesting,” the Harris campaign said, along with a screenshot of Musk’s old post.

Former President Donald Trump, while speaking with X owner Elon Musk on the billionaire’s social media site, said the assassination attempt against him was “not pleasant.”

Answering Musk’s question about what the shooting was “like for you,” Trump responded: “Not pleasant.”

Musk said part of the reason he endorsed Trump’s presidential bid was because of the former president’s reaction to the assassination attempt campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last month, calling Trump pumping his fists “just incredibly inspiring.”

The former president vowed to return to Butler in October, joking, “I think I’ll start by saying, ‘As I was saying prior to being so horribly interrupted.’”

Elon Musk, left, and former President Donald Trump.

Elon Musk kicked off his livestream conversation on X with former President Donald Trump at 8:42 p.m. ET by apologizing that it started late, reiterating his claim that it was delayed by a cyberattack. The event was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m.

Musk said a distributed denial-of-service attack “saturated … hundreds of gigabits of data,” overwhelming X’s servers.

“As this massive attack illustrates, there’s a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say,” Musk said.

After a technical glitch delayed a planned interview with X owner Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump by more than 30 minutes, Musk said the platform would allow fewer users on the livestream.

“We will proceed with the smaller number of concurrent listeners at 8:30 ET and then post the unedited audio immediately thereafter,” Musk said in a post on X.

As of 8:35 p.m. ET, 850,000 users had joined the “Spaces” event and it had not yet started.

Elon Musk claimed he had deleted CrowdStrike from “all of its systems” in a post on X in July.

He blasted the cybersecurity firm after a software update went awry in July, causing a tech outage that paralyzed companies around the world.

CrowdStrike’s cybersecurity software is used by numerous Fortune 500 companies, including major global banks, healthcare and energy companies —to detect and block hacking threats.

About 15 minutes after an interview on X was scheduled to begin between owner Elon Musk and former President Donald Trump, thousands of people trying to join the conversation complained they were unable to listen. Musk blamed the issue on a distributed denial-of-service attack that overwhelmed the company’s servers.

“There appears to be a massive DDOS attack on 𝕏. Working on shutting it down,” Musk said in a post on X. “Worst case, we will proceed with a smaller number of live listeners and post the conversation later.”

“DDOS,” or distributed denial of service, is a common attack method in which hackers flood a site with phony traffic to overwhelm its systems and attempt to knock it offline.

It was not immediately clear if bad actors were behind what Musk called an “attack,” or whether the issue was simply caused by too many users trying to listen to the conversation.

Musk said in a separate post that X “tested the system with 8 million concurrent listeners earlier today.”

X users struggled to access a livestream conversation that owner Elon Musk was set to host with former President Donald Trump on the platform Monday night, after the two men spent much of the day promoting it.

When attempting to join the “Spaces” event, some desktop users were met with a still, grayed out screen but could not join the event; others who tried to connect via the mobile app received a pop-up saying “this space is not available” with a monkey emoji.

Within minutes of the event’s expected 8 p.m. ET start time, “crashed,” “unable” and “#TwitterBlackout” were trending on the site.

The debacle was not unlike technical issues X has experienced in the past when Musk attempted to host livestream events with prominent guests. Last year, a “Spaces” event to launch the short-lived presidential candidacy of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was plagued by glitches and sound issues. Musk blamed the issues on a server overload.

Musk was apparently aware of the risk of technical difficulties as he prepared for the conversation with Trump. The billionaire had posted Sunday night that he was running “streaming tests” to ensure X’s systems were prepared.

The Trump campaign says it inadvertently chartered a jet once connected toJeffrey Epstein, the convicted pedophile who died in jail before he could face trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.

The jet once owned by Epstein was chartered by the campaign through a vendor after Trump’s plane, dubbed “Trump Force One,” experienced a mechanical issue and needed to be diverted during Trump’s campaign swing out West late last week.

The Trump campaign had no awareness of the charter plane’s previous owners, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The plane was commissioned by a vendor that has often been used by the campaign, the source added.

Trump has consistently attempted topublicly distance himself from Epsteinsince the financier first faced charges related to inappropriate sexual conduct with underage girls in the mid-2000s.

Trump once said he maintained a more than decade-long friendship with Epstein, telling New York Magazine in 2002, “I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy.”

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gestures after speaking at a campaign rally in Bozeman, Mont., Friday, August 9.

The FBI and other investigators probing the apparenthack and leak of Trump campaign documents,which Donald Trump has blamed on Iran, suspect the hackers were able to compromise the personal email account of longtime Republican and Trump operative Roger Stone, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

The hackers used access to Stone’s email account to try to break into the account of a senior Trump campaign official as part of a persistent effort to access campaign networks, one of the sources said. The hacking incident, which occurred in June, set off a scramble in the Trump campaign, the FBI and Microsoft, which spotted the intrusion attempts, to contain the incident and to determine whether there was a broader cyber threat from Iran.

Roger Stone speaks at the Turning Point Action conference in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sunday, July 16, 2023.

Stone was informed by Microsoft and the FBI that his personal email was compromised by a “Foreign State Actor,” with the intention of utilizing the account to phish officials in the Trump campaign into opening a link that would give perpetrators access to that person’s computer, one of the sources familiar said.

The Washington Post first reported that Stone’s account was targeted.The Trump campaign declined to comment on whose account was breached.

“Mr. Stone was contacted about this matter by Microsoft and the FBI and continues to cooperate with both. Mr. Stone will have no further comment at this time,” Stone’s attorney Grant Smith said in a statement Monday night.

The FBI also briefed the Biden-Harris campaign in June about Iranian hackers targeting that campaign, one of the sources said.

“Our campaign vigilantly monitors and protects against cyber threats, and we are not aware of any security breaches of our systems,” a Harris campaign official told CNN.

Read more about the apparent hacking here.

CNN’s Zachary Cohen contributed reporting to this post.

This post has been updated with additional context and information on attempts to hack Roger Stone’s email account.

A New York judge ruled Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’sballot-access petition in the stateis invalid, delivering the first major blow to the independent presidential candidate’s bid for nationwide ballot access.

New York Supreme Court Justice Christina Ryba accepted the arguments made by Democratic voters and supported by Clear Choice PAC, a pro-Kamala Harris group seeking to combat third-party candidates, which claimed Kennedy violated state law by listing a New York address as his residence on the petition despite living in California.

Ryba wrote that Kennedy’s listed New York address was not a “bona fide and legitimate residence, but merely a ‘sham’ address that he assumed for the purpose of maintaining his voter registration and furthering his own political aspirations in this State.”

The ruling marks the first major legal defeat Kennedy has suffered in his quest to qualify for the ballot in all 50 states and Washington, DC. Kennedy’s campaign defeated challenges in several other states, and Kennedy himself maintained confidence he would gain ballot access nationwide as recently as Friday.

In a statement following the decision Monday, Kennedy said he plans to appeal the ruling in federal court.

The campaign made a particularly strong push to qualify in New York, gathering thousands of signatures and holding multiple campaign events in the state during its six-week collection period this spring. Kennedy testified in person at the trial in Albany, New York, to defend his ballot access last week.

Read the full story.

Both candidates are proposing removing taxes on tips.

With the presidential campaign heating up, both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are making a play for service and hospitality workers’ votes by promising to eliminate taxes on tips.

But the move likely wouldn’t help many tipped workers, largely because a sizable share don’t earn enough to pay federal income taxes, experts say.

Neither Trump, whoannounced the ideaat a Las Vegas rally in June, nor Harris, whovoiced her support for the policyin Las Vegas on Saturday, have released detailed proposals, which would have to go through Congress. Among the questions are how much tipped income would be free of taxes, whether any guardrails would be put in place to prevent fraud and abuse, and whether both federal income and payroll taxes would be eliminated.

Harris would couple her plan to eliminate taxes on tips with a push for Congress to raise the minimum wage, a Harris campaign official said. Also, the proposal would include an income limit and prevent hedge fund managers and lawyers from structuring their compensation to try to take advantage of the policy. Tips would remain subject to payroll taxes.

Soon after Trump promised to get rid of taxes on tips, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas introduced a bill titled “No Tax on Tips Act,” which would allow workers to deduct tips paid by cash, check, credit card and debit card on their federal income taxes. Supported by Nevada Democratic Sens. Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, the legislation would not eliminate federal payroll taxes, which fund Social Security and Medicare and total 15.3%, half of which is paid by employers.

Other bills introduced in the House include different provisions, such as eliminating both federal income and payroll taxes or placing a cap on the amount of tip income that could be excluded from taxes.

Read more about each campaign’s plan on ending taxes on tips.

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign bashed the European Union and accused it of “trying to meddle in the U.S. Presidential election” after an EU official wrote a letter to Elon Musk warning of the “amplification of harmful content” ahead of Musk’s planned conversation with Trump on X on Monday night.

Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, said in his letter that the X owner and Tesla CEO had a legal obligation to ensure the platform’s compliance with EU law and needed to ensure measures were put in place to mitigate the “amplification of harmful content” that could have “detrimental effects on civic discourse and public security” if left unchecked.

Musk responded on X with a meme that said, “Take a big step back and literally, f**k your own face!”

Musk, who has endorsed Trump, said his conversation with the former president, scheduled for 8 p.m. ET, will be “unscripted with no limits on subject matter.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are continuing to pitch their messages to voters this week as they prepare to face off in November.

Trump and his campaign have been struggling to deploy a consistent line of attack against Harris, who has closed the gap between Trump’s polling advantage over President Joe Biden. Harris, meanwhile, has been working to keep that momentum going, capitalizing on images of her large crowds at rallies.

Later tonight,Trump will have a live conversation on X with the platform’s owner, Elon Musk.

Catch up on the latest headlines on the presidential campaign:

Trump

Harris

Third-party candidates: Independentpresidential candidatesRobert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West are facing objections to their ballot access petitions in Maine, according to an announcement from Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ office. Hearings on the challenges will take place on Wednesday.

Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will speak at next week’s Democratic National Convention on Monday night, while her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will speak Wednesday evening, according to two sources familiar with the planning.

The Clintons are among the long list of high-profile Democrats who are expected to have significant speaking roles at the Chicago convention, where Vice President Kamala Harris will formally accept her party’s nomination for president Thursday night.

For Hillary Clinton, her forthcoming remarks come eight years after she accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination for president in Philadelphia, before she lost the election to Donald Trump in a shocking defeat.

CNN previously reported that the Clintons privatelyencouraged donors to continue financially supporting President Joe Biden’s campaign before he ultimately dropped out of the 2024 race in the aftermath of his disastrous debate performance.One source familiar with theClintons’ thinking had insisted that the couple were being “deferential to the process.”

Both Hillary and Bill Clinton were quick to endorse Harris after Biden dropped out of the race last month.

Convention officials would not confirm the date of the Clintons’ speeches next week, but said in keeping with historical precedent, current and past presidents are expected to participate in convention programming. Biden is expected to speak on the first night.

Independent presidential candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West are facing objections to their ballot access petitions in Maine, according to an announcement from Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ office.

Three Maine voters filed objections against West, while another voter filed an objection against Kennedy, Bellows’ office said in a statement. Hearings on the challenges will take place on Wednesday and a ruling will come within five days of the hearings being completed, according to the statement.

The objection against Kennedy argues that his petition violates state laws by exceeding the maximum amount of raw signatures each candidate is allowed to submit while claiming the signatures do not match petition formatting laws. Maine law states independent candidates’ petitions must be signed by not more than 5,000 Maine voters. The objection also questions the validity of the New York residence Kennedy listed as his address on the petition, an argument objectors have used in other states in their efforts to block Kennedy’s ballot access elsewhere.

The objections to West’s petition claim some signatures he submitted “were obtained through fraud or knowingly false statements by circulators,” tying the claim to petition circulators who gathered signatures for West in North Carolina in a manner that ultimately led that state’s board of elections to reject West’s ballot access. The objections also allege West collected signatures from people who are not registered to vote and exceeded the raw signature maximum allowed by the state.

CNN has reached out to the Kennedy campaign for comment. In a statement, West campaign spokesperson Edwin DeJesus called the challenge “baseless.”

It is unclear whether these challenges are linked to the broader effort by the Democratic National Committee and the pro-Harris super PAC Clear Choice to block Kennedy’s ballot access around the country. CNN has reached out to Clear Choice and the DNC for comment.

The challenges in Maine are the latest legal obstacle facing Kennedy. Last week, Kennedy testified in New York state court to defend listing a New York address as his residency on his ballot access petition in the state despite living in California.

The FBI is investigating an apparent hacking incident that the Trump campaign blamed on Iran over the weekend, the bureau said in a statement Monday afternoon.

“We can confirm the FBI is investigating matter,” the agency said.

Over the weekend, Donald Trump posted to his social media platform that Microsoft informed his campaign it had been hacked.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirbysaid Monday that the US is taking any reports of hacking “very, very seriously,” but declined to confirm the veracity of the Trump campaign’s claims.

Former President Donald Trump walks after a campaign rally in Bozeman, Montana, on August 9.

A super PAC aligned with former President Donald Trump’s campaign said in a new memo it’s planning on spending $100 million in ads between now and Labor Day as Trump looks to recapture momentum that has faltered since the Democratic Party coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris as its nominee.

The executive director and a senior adviser of Make America Great Again, Inc., one of Trump’s leading super PACs, wrote in a new memo that it would be launching a new $70 million wave of TV and digital ads in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and North Carolina and expanding its efforts in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona.

The memo, written by the PAC’s executive director David Lee and senior adviser Chris Grant and addressed to “Interested Parties,” said the group will continue trying to portray Harris as “the most radical liberal ever to run for President” and as a “soft-on-crime radical who is too dangerous for the White House.” The ads will highlight Harris’ record on immigration and her time as the San Francisco district attorney, the memo said.

Trump and his campaign have focused in particular on immigration and have been trying to falsely cast Harris as the Biden administration’s “border czar,” despite Harris never having been charged with overseeing the US-Mexico border. She was instead deputized by Biden to tackle the root causes of migration.

Politico was the first to report on the memo from MAGA Inc.

Some background: MAGA Inc. has already run$111.6 million total worth of pro-Trump advertising since the start of 2023 through Monday, including digital ads. The super PAC played an instrumental role in Trump’s paid messaging during both the primary and the past summer months when the Trump campaign itself was mostly off the air. MAGA Inc. has run $71.2 million worth of advertising since Trump became the presumptive nominee after Super Tuesday, through Monday.

Rep. Susie Lee speaks at a campaign event for Harris and Walz at the Unvieristy of Las Vegas in Nevada on August 10.

Democratic Rep. Susie Lee of Nevada is in the fight of her political life as she tries to hold onto her seat in one of the most competitive House races in the country.

Lee, who prides herself on focusing on local issues and staying away from the top of her party’s ticket, says that her region has seen a 400% increase in volunteers since Vice President Kamala Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee, injecting a critical surge in her House race that was always going to come down to turnout.

But just because Harris has potentially enticed voters off the couch and to the table, does not mean Democrats like Lee, whose race could determine whether her party regains control of the House of Representatives, are planning to change their message and further align themselves with Harris.

In conversations with nearly a dozen Democratic lawmakers and candidates running in competitive races across the country, a common theme emerged. With Harris and her new running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Democrats have felt a tangible bump of energy in their districts, through spikes in volunteers, donations and event turnout. But that hasn’t resulted in a shift in campaign strategy, with most in nail-bitter races still wanting to keep the top of the ticket at an arm’s length from the campaigns they have built around local issues.

Southeast of Lee, former Arizona legislator Kirsten Engel is trying to flip a Republican district in Arizona that partially rests on the US-Mexico border and described the recent grassroots enthusiasm she is experiencing inspired by Harris as “undeniable.”

Rep. Chris Deluzio, a Pennsylvania Democrat who supports Harris, told CNN he was glad to see that she has moved away from her previous position on fracking.

Democrat Rudy Salas, who is looking to flip a competitive Republican-held district in California that Biden carried in 2020, told CNN that campaigning with Harris is “not like a make-or-break thing” and is one of a number of Democrats across the country who plan to skip the Democratic National Convention next week.

Read about more House Democrats up for election and their campaigns’ relationship with Harris here.

The logo for the Democratic National Convention is displayed at the United Center during a media walkthrough on January 18, 2024 in Chicago.

The first night of the Democratic National Convention is now just a week away.

President Joe Biden, who was previously slated to close the program, will be a keynote speaker next Monday before the event will focus on Vice President Kamala Harris for the rest of the week, according to a source familiar with the planning.

The White House said Monday that Biden will use next week to focus on the issues that he “cares about”and speak about party unity.

Biden is expected to deliver a primetime speech during the opening night of the Chicago convention, according to three sources familiar with the planning, with the evening’s programming centering on Biden’s legacy and achievements. After that, Biden will literally and figuratively pass the baton to his one-time running mate.

There’s a history to such choreography. At the August 2000 convention, outgoing President Bill Clinton helmed the opening night keynote. After a camera crew filmed Clinton’s dramatic, three-minute entrance to the arena, he was welcomed to the lectern with uproarious applause.

Who else will speak: The convention’s set list is viewed as the who’s who of the Democratic party – highlighting elected officials seen as rising stars, leaders from business and labor, and high-profile endorsem*nts from celebrities, many of whom have reached out proactively to the party since Harris ascended to the top of the ticket.

Clinton and former President Barack Obama are tentatively expected to deliver remarks Tuesday, people familiar with the planning said, though schedules are still in flux. The possibility of speaking roles for former first lady Michelle Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also under discussion. And Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, will haveamarquee spot, delivering a historic address of his own.

CNN’s Sam Fossum contributed reporting to this post.

President Joe Biden supports eliminating taxes on tipped wages, the White House said Monday, echoing calls from the campaigns of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump’s campaign — which have both made the issue a major campaign pledge on the trail.

The press secretary insisted Monday that there’s no daylight between Harris’ campaign promises and the president, telling reporters Monday thetwo “are certainly on the same page, when we think about the economy, when we think about health care.”

Still, she acknowledged, the administration expects that Harris will likely “build on the successes that they’ve had” in the Biden administration, rather than take the same positions Biden has already staked out as president.

“That’s another reason why the president passed the torch, if you will, right?” Jean-Pierre said. “Understanding that they worked together very closely in the last three and a half years, and that was going to continue, and she was the best person to move forward.”

Pressed if Biden had considered instituting a policy eliminating taxes on tipped wages as president, the press secretary wouldn’t say, only telling reporters, “What I can say is the president supports it.”

More context: Harris at a rally in Las Vegas over the weekend promised to advance policies to benefit working families, pointing to the elimination of taxes on tips as an example as the vice presidentseeks tocoalesce support from the sizable coalition of service industry workers in the key battleground state of Nevada. Trump, whofirstproposedthe idea at his own Las Vegas campaign rally in June, accused Harris of copying him.

President Joe Biden answers reporters' questions in the East Room at the White House on August 1 in Washington, DC.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that President Joe Biden will use his remarks at next week’s Democratic National Convention to focus on the issues he “cares about” and that he is “looking forward” to speaking at the event in the anticipated passing-of-the-torch moment.

“It’s an opportunity to be in front of millions of Americans to talk about what we’ve done in the last three and a half years. I’m going to be mindful because it is a political event, but the president’s looking forward to it,” she added.

More about Biden’s remarks: The president is expected to deliver a prime-time speech during the opening night of the Chicago convention, according to three sources familiar with the planning, with the evening’s programming centering on Biden’s legacy and achievements

That programming will include highly produced televised content aimed at telling the story of how the country moved beyond the pandemic era before passing the baton to his onetime running mate.

“Monday night is Joe’s night,” said a source familiar with the planning. “And then he’ll turn the keys over” to allow the event to focus on Vice President Kamala Harris.

CNN’s Kayla Tausche and Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting to this post.

Former President Donald Trump is highlighting past comments Vice President Kamala Harris has made about progressive policies as he tries to paint her as a “San Francisco Radical.”

The video, posted on X, comes as Trump began posting on the platform again after his account remained dormant for nearly a year ahead of his conversation with the company’s owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on the platform.

The video highlights past comments Harris has made, including saying she didn’t want to “treat people who are undocumented who cross the border as criminals.” It also notes that Harris said “we need to probably think about starting from scratch” when asked if she supported abolishing ICE because she thought it was “wrong and backward to think that more police officers will create more safety.”

The video also includes remarks from Harris where she supports the progressive policy proposals of Medicare for All and the Green New Deal.Trump has also highlighted these points at his recent campaign rallies.

Carol Carty misses something in today’s Republican Party.

Carty is an attorney who lives just across the Philadelphia line in suburban Montgomery County. “It was very Republican when I was growing up,” she said in an interview in her Bala Cynwyd home. “And it is Democratic now.”

Carty pines for the GOP that drew her in at the age of 18: a party defined by lower taxes, less regulation, and respect for the courts and the Constitution.

“A ‘Never Trump’ Republican,” Carty said. “That is how I would best label myself.”

And yet as recently as a few weeks ago, she planned to vote for Trump — and it’s still not out of the question.

She backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. So why the openness to Trump this year? Carty is exasperated with Biden over inflation, immigration and more.

Carty is part of a CNN project,All Over the Map, to track the 2024 campaign through the eyes of voters who are members of key voting blocs and who live in critical areas within the battleground states. Her views are telling, all the more so because they were shared by other supporters of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Reagan Republicans in our group. Harris’ ascendance on the Democratic ticket is shaking up the race in the pivotal suburbs. But the belief that she is to the left of Biden creates a quandary for Republicans who do not want Trump back in the White House but have doubts about Harris.

Read more from CNN’s All Over the Map here.

A Massachusetts hair salon owner said members of law enforcement entered her business without permission and used the bathroom during a campaign event held by Vice President Kamala Harris last month, CNN affiliateSpectrum News 1 Worcesterreported.

“Violated, disrespected” and “totally blown away” is how owner Alicia Powers said she felt about the incident in an interview with Spectrum News 1 Worcester. In video obtained by the affiliate, a person is seen taping something on the lens of a camera on the salon’s front porch.

It is not clear what law enforcement agency may be responsible for the incident. The Secret Serviceregularly workswith local and state agencies to help secure events attended by those the Secret Service is assigned to protect.

Powers told the affiliate a representative from the Secret Service reached out to apologize, but the agency has not confirmed one of its agents was responsible.

“The U.S. Secret Service works closely with our partners in the business community to carry out our protective and investigative missions. The Secret Service has since communicated with the affected business owner. We hold these relationships in the highest regard and our personnel would not enter, or instruct our partners to enter, a business without the owner’s permission,” Secret Service spokesperson Melissa McKenzie said in a statement to CNN on Sunday.

Harris’eventwas held at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield on July 27. The venue is next to Powers’ salon.

CNN has reached out to Powers for comment.

The White House on Monday condemned any foreign interference in US elections but declined to weigh in on the specifics regarding reports former President Donald Trump’s campaign was hacked by Iran’s government. It instead referred questions to the Justice Department.

Over the weekend, Trump posted to his social media platform that Microsoft informed his campaign it had been hacked.

“We were just informed by Microsoft Corporation that one of our many websites was hacked by the Iranian Government — Never a nice thing to do!” Trump posted Saturday. “They were only able to get publicly available information but, nevertheless, they shouldn’t be doing anything of this nature.”

Kirby said Monday that the US is taking any reports of hacking “very, very seriously,” but declined to confirm the veracity of the Trump campaign’s claims.

Kirby said he can’t “comment on the veracity of those claims that Iran was involved,” but pointed to a report released last month by US intelligence that found that Iran is working to influence the presidential election. “So, we are certainly mindful that they have this intent,” Kirby added.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Republican millionaire banker Eric Hovde.

Tuesday’s Senate primary in Wisconsin is set to formalize a matchup that has been in general election mode for months, as the parties contest one of the most competitive 2024 Senate races.

Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin is seeking her third term in the perennial battleground state, and she’s likely to face off against Eric Hovde, a Republican businessman with the backing of the national party, who has poured at least $13 million from his personal fortune into his bid, according to the latest FEC data available.

Already, the race has seen nearly $66 million in ad spending, with Democrats outspending Republicans by about $40 million to $26 million. Both sides have been active early, flooding the airwaves with ads promoting each candidate and attacking their rival.

One of the ads promotes Baldwin’s work on legislation to lower health care costs. Another launched last week highlights her work on legislation to provide health care to veterans suffering from exposure to toxic burn pits, an effort that has been highlighted by several vulnerable Democratic incumbents in their campaign ads.

Baldwin and her allies, meanwhile, have also been on offense, running waves of aggressive attack spots branding Hovde as a carpetbagger, criticizing his rhetoric, and slamming his policy positions.

On the other side, Hovde has put his millions to work, airing ads that seek to introduce him to Wisconsin voters, touting his connections to the state as he looks to blunt Democratic criticism while laying out a conservative vision with a focus on economic issues and immigration.

Former President Donald Trump on Monday posted a video on X for the first time in nearly a year ahead of his conversation on the platform later in the day with X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The more than two-minute video includes news coverage of the federal search of Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 and his indictments by the Justice Department. Trump regularly claims on the campaign trail he is a victim of what he calls “political persecution,” and the video seeks to amplify that claim.

“I never thought anything like this could happen in America. The only crime that I have committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it. The more that a broken system tells you that you’re wrong, the more certain you should be that you must keep pushing ahead,” Trump is heard saying in the video.

The video includes lines that are staples of Trump’s campaign speeches, including: “They want to silence me because I will never let them silence you. They’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you, and I just happen to be standing in their way.”

Trump also posted another video in which he’s heard repeating another part of his campaign stump speech in which he promises to “demolish the deep state” and “expel the warmongers from our government.”In a third post, Trump asks, “Are you better off now than you were when I was president?”

Trump and Musk are expected to have a live conversation on the platform on Monday at 8 p.m. ET.

The last time Trump posted on the platform was to post a photo of his mugshot from August 24, 2023, after he was processed at an Atlanta jail in the Georgia election subversion case.

This post has been updated with additional information.

Vice President Kamala and former President Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden had banked on June’s presidential debate turning around a race that was slipping away from him.

Now, Donald Trump may be laying a similar bet after reversing himself byagreeing to debate on ABCnext month as his new Democratic opponent enjoys surging momentum.

Trump clearly doesn’t believe he’ll suffer the kind of debacle that ended Biden’s campaign, but his decision — and call for another two debates on NBC and Fox, which Vice President Kamala Harris has not agreed to — tells an emerging truth about the election.

After a barnstorming week for Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Trump suddenly looks like old news — a crushing new experience for an ex-president who prides himself on driving the narrative.

A huge test for both candidates:The build-up to the debate on September 10, assuming it goes ahead, will be intense, and the truncated nature of the new campaign means it could create another historic pivot point on the dwindling road to the White House.

Already, Trump is playing his idiosyncratic expectations game of denigrating the skills of his opponent, who could be the first Black woman and South Asian president. At a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort Thursday, he compared Harris unfavorably with Biden, who he’d long argued lacked the mental acuity to serve. “She’s actually not as smart as he is. I don’t think he’s very smart either, by the way. I’m not a big fan of his brain,” Trump said.

The clash also looms as an extreme test for Harris. The vice president has a mixed record in debates — she performed strongly in such events early in her failed 2020 presidential campaign. But at others, she struggled. And her most unflattering moments in office have come when she’s been asked to explain her positions or answer tough questions in major interviews.

Time Magazine has puts Kamala Harris on its latest cover, with the cover headline, “Her moment.”

The feature story traces her rise to the top of the national Democratic ticket and the challenges that lie ahead for her candidacy.

In this September 2023 photo, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy listens during a press conference in Washington, DC.

As former President Donald Trump struggles to find his footing in a new campaign against Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sounded alarm bells about Trump’s attack strategies and the potential impact of Harris’ ascension on down-ballot Republicans.

Following Trump’sfalse claimthat pictures of the sizable crowd at Harris’ Detroit rally were AI generated, McCarthy said “stop questioning the size of her crowds.”

Instead, he implored the former president to “start questioning her positions,” highlighting several of Harris’ policy positions that haveshiftedover the years.

“She is the biggest flip-flop with the most extreme positions,” McCarthy said, adding that Trump has “a short time frame” to define this race. “So don’t sit back, get out there and start making the case and use her own words to do it.”

He also said that Trump should be fundraising for down-ballot Republicans running for House seats claiming “it’s easier to win seats for Republicans this cycle in the House than it has been for the last two.”

Donald Trump’s presidential campaign made its largest ad buy of the election over the weekend, as he faces rising pressure from a newly energized Democratic ticket, and prepares for what looks to be a highly competitive fall campaign season.

According to AdImpact data, Trump’s campaign placed a total of $37.1 million in new ad reservations, more than doubling its existing future bookings. The campaign’s largest buy was in Georgia, which accounts for $23.8 million of the new reservations. The ad reservations are set to begin this week, and stretch through Election Day.

In addition to major new bookings in Georgia, the Trump campaign bought about…

Trump’s campaign had previously booked more than $30 million worth of future ad time in Pennsylvania, so the new buys bring its total future ad reservations to about $68.3 million, with Pennsylvania ($32 million) and Georgia ($23.8 million) leading the way.

It’s a significant escalation of the Trump campaign’s paid messaging. During the GOP presidential primary, Trump’s campaign had spent a total of about $17 million on ads, between entering the race through Super Tuesday, when he effectively clinched the nomination.

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance speaks during a press conference on August 7, in Shelby Township, Michigan.

Vice presidential nominee JD Vance said he would like to see the child tax credit expanded to $5,000 per child.

Vance said he wants a “broad-based family policy and a broad-based Child Tax Credit,” arguing it shouldn’t be based on income.

“You don’t want a different policy for higher-income families. You just want to have a pro-family child tax credit,” Vance continued.

Vance said he opposes “one model of child care,” and that the credit should also apply to grandparents who raise grandchildren, as his did, as well as to single parents.

Pressed on whether the credit should apply to same-sex couples, Vance said, “All families would be included, of course.”

Vance also claimed that “the child tax credit has languished thanks to the Biden administration because (Vice President Kamala) Harris has failed to show fundamental leadership.” Hehas previously falsely claimedthat Harris is calling to end the child tax credit. She has actually called for years to increase it.

Earlier this month,Senate Republicans blockeda bipartisan tax package that would have temporarily expanded the child tax credit, which Vance described in the CBS interview as a “show vote.”

Donald Trump’scampaign, which has whiffed in its early attacks onKamala Harris’ new presidential campaign, will grapple this week for a more effective foothold after the vice president transformed an election of stunning surprises.

The ex-president has deployed some of his most trusted political tools — targeting racial identify, creating alternative realities, flinging insults and gaslighting. On Sunday he spread a new false conspiracy theoryover the size of Harris’ rally crowd in Michigan last week.

But his efforts to bring down his new adversary and her policy of ignoring his provocations have so far highlighted his own liabilities more than hers and emphasized the way Harris could offer a new choice for voters.

When the ex-president called Harris “dumb” at a Montana rally Friday night orfalsely claimed last monththat she “happened to turn Black,” he may have delighted his base voters. But those kinds of comments risk alienating women and swing-state voters, as well as reversing the gains he has made among minorities that he’d proudly highlighted for months.

Trump’s campaign was also forced on Saturday to deny a report in The New York Times that he’d privately referred to Harris as a “b*tch” as he bemoaned her momentum.

Trump’s undisciplinednews conferencelast week and a weekend of venting also suggest that the Republican nominee is far from coming to terms with the shift in a race that seemed to be heading in his direction three weeks ago when bullish Republicans left their convention predicting a landslide.

But a swing-state tour by Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, conjured euphoria not experienced by Democrats in years. It left Trump fuming that his victory in his debate with President Joe Biden only led to a new battle — one he’s more in danger of losing.

Read the full analysis.

Elon Musk attends an event in Cannes, France on June 19.

X owner Elon Musk has announced that he and former President Donald Trump are scheduled to have a live conversation on the social media platform tonight at 8 p.m. ET.

“Live conversation onXwith@realDonaldTrump& me at 8pm ET tomorrow,” Muskposted.

Musk endorsed Trump’s presidential bid moments after the assassination attempt at Trump’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania last month.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on August 10.

Vice President Kamala Harris is capitalizing on the power of strong imagery to sustain the momentum surrounding her candidacy in hopes of building a cultural movement for the Democratic ticket in ways that long eludedPresident Joe Biden.

Harris is taking a page out of the former president’s own playbook — and drawing his ire in the process.

The surge in interest in her campaign has led to a rapid scaling-up of Harris’ infrastructure. Merchandise has exploded online. Harris’ crowds are filled with supporters wearing shirts, buttons and hats of all varieties — a scene far more comparable to a Trump rally than a Biden one.

Large crowds of supporters have already greeted Harris in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. In Wisconsin last week, some supporters abandoned their cars on the roadside a mile from the event site and walked the rest of the distance.

“It’s not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything,” Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz quipped Friday night, praising the audience at a packed rally outside Phoenix.

Getting Trump’s attention:Harris’ large crowds are now a pivotal part of the new plan to defeat Trump.

On Sunday, Trump falsely claimed that Harris had “nobody” waiting for her at her Detroit airport hangar rally—which was attended by thousands—and that photos of the crowd in front of Air Force Two and at other speeches were created using artificial intelligence.

Read the fullstory.