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    • Dems pile on Trump for ‘violent rhetoric’
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    Dems pile on Trump for ‘violent rhetoric’

    Vaseline Posted on

    Marina Pitofsky
    , 
    Sudiksha Kochi
    , 
    Riley Beggin
    , 
    Joey Garrison
    , 
    Rachel Barber
    , 
    Savannah Kuchar
    , 
    Aysha Bagchi
    , 
    Bart Jansen
    , 
    Erin Mansfield
    , 
    Michael Collins
    , 
    Francesca Chambers
     
    USA TODAY

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    Just four days to Election Day.

    Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris both gathered with supporters on Friday in Wisconsin, one of the pivotal swing states that could decide the election. The Democratic and Republican nominees also both held rallies in the same city, Milwaukee.

    U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies announced Friday that a widely shared video purporting to show a Haitian man claiming he’s illegally voted in Georgia is a piece of Russian disinformation − and they warned Americans to get ready for more as Nov. 5 draws closer.

    And Democrats piled onto Trump for comments he made about former Rep. Liz Cheney, using violent imagery to say she should personally face armed combat for supporting U.S. military interventions overseas.

    More: Fake video of Georgia voter fraud is Russian misinformation, US officials say

    Keep up with the USA TODAY Network’s live coverage.

    The Harris campaign touted momentum Friday among late-deciding voters who have made their decisions on who to support over the last week.

    A senior Harris campaign official cited internal data suggesting Harris is winning these voters over Trump by “double digits.” The official pointed to Trump’s recent campaign rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden, which included racist comments from some speakers, as a galvanizing moment that “crystalized the choice” for many voters.

    Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, disputed the trend, accusing the Harris campaign of “trying to change the narrative about their sinking ship.”

    “What part of the last week would encourage people to get out and vote for Kamala Harris?” Leavitt said, singling out President Joe Biden’s controversial “garbage” remark about Trump supporters. “Kamala Harris has had bad news cycle after bad news cycle because she’s a terrible candidate and no one has been inspired to vote for her.”

    -Joey Garrison 

    Vice President Kamala Harris is leading with a majority of Latino voters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, according to a new Noticias Univision/YouGov poll, as former President Donald Trump faces fallout from a racist joke about Puerto Ricans and Latinos made at his rally on Sunday.

    Nearly two-thirds (65%) of Latino voters said they would vote for Harris if the election were held today, compared to the 30% who said they would support Trump, the poll of Hispanic voters said. More than half, 54%, of respondents described Trump as “very disrespectful.”

    Tony Hinchliffe, a comedian who goes by the stage name Kill Tony, called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” and made other offensive jokes about Latinos and Black Americans at Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday. Trump was met with backlash, including among Puerto Rican voters in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where he held a rally two days later.

    The poll found 70% of Latinos in the state thought the remark was more racist than humorous. Only 16% said they saw the comment intended as a joke rather than serious commentary. More than three in four (77%) of Puerto Ricans in Pennsylvania believe Trump is very disrespectful to Latinos. 

    Both Harris and Trump will be heading to the state in the closing days of the election.  Harris will stop in Allentown, Pennsylvania, a city with a large Puerto Rican population, on Monday, her last day on the campaign trail.

    – Rebecca Morin

    Donald Trump Jr. made a surprise appearance at JD Vance’s rally Friday afternoon in Selma, N.C.  

    Giving remarks on stage after Vance, the former president’s eldest son encouraged voters in the southern swing state to turn out in these final days of the election. 

    “We got to vote, like you’re the third monkey in line for the arc and it’s starting to rain,” Trump Jr. told supporters in a reference to the biblical story of Noah’s Arc. 

    -Savannah Kuchar

    Rapper Cardi B rips Trump for ‘hustling women’

    Rapper Cardi B said she wasn’t going to vote this year. But Harris joining the race changed her mind.

    “She’s passionate, she’s compassionate, she shows empathy, and most of all, she is not delusional,” the singer said Friday.

    Among the problems she said she believed that Harris would tackle is the high cost of living. “It’s even high for me,” she said at a Milwaukee rally for Harris.

    Harris will ban price gouging on food and groceries, she told them. “And she told me that to my face. So she better not lie to my face,” she added. 

    She also hit Trump for saying he’d protect women whether they like it or not. “I don’t play that,” she said during extended remarks on the topic.

    If his version of protecting women is not the freedom of choice, she said, “I don’t want it.”

    “We all knew Trump was a hustler – but hustling women – and I’m a hustler – but hustling women out of their rights to their body is nasty work,” she said.

    Today, he’s hustling sneakers, tomorrow it’s your healthcare rights, the rapper added. “He’s going to take it away from you. He’s going to snatch it,” she said. “America, the only concept of a plan he has, is a plan to hustle you.”

    “He’s selling more than watches. And sneakers. He’s selling us bigotry, misogyny, division, chaos and confusion,” she said.

    – Francesca Chambers

    Tech problems: Trump complains about mic in Milwaukee

    Trump referenced issues with his microphone throughout his Milwaukee speech Friday evening. Early on, Trump yanked the microphone from the stand, after some in the crowd shouted about not being able to hear him. 

    “Yeah, I think the mic stinks,” Trump said. 

    “And then we don’t pay the contractor,” he added. “I say don’t pay the contractor, then they write a story, ‘Trump doesn’t pay his bills. He’s a bad guy.’” 

    Trump has a history of accusations, and lawsuits, against him, alleging that he’s failed to pay his bills. He made similar microphone complaints earlier Friday during his stop in Warren, Mich. 

    Later in his remarks, Trump complained, “I’ve never held a microphone up so long in my damn life. It’s like I’m weightlifting. This sucker’s heavy.” 

    – Savannah Kuchar

    Georgia county ordered to accept ballots after Election Day

    A Georgia judge ruled Friday that Cobb County, which is near Atlanta, must continue to accept absentee ballots that are postmarked by 7 p.m. EDT on Election Day, Nov. 5, and arrive before 5 p.m. EDT on Nov. 8 for voters who were sent their ballots late.

    That matches the receipt deadline that is already in place for overseas and uniformed Georgia voters. Judge Robert E. Flournoy III also called for segregating the ballots at issue that arrive in the new window of permitted time, which could be a precaution in case there are further questions or litigation about them.

    The order comes the same day the ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center sued Cobb County election officials, who already admitted that, as of Wednesday, there were more than 3,000 requested ballots that hadn’t been sent out. The officials said there was an equipment issue, but most of the ballots would be sent by express or overnight mail by Friday with prepaid express return envelopes.

    Flournoy required the officials to meet their pledge, and also ordered them to notify affected voters where possible that the ballots had been sent out and the voters could also vote in person on Election Day, Tuesday.

    – Aysha Bagchi

    A Pennsylvania court ordered the Erie County Board of Elections on Friday to offer new absentee ballots to nearly 20,000 voters who didn’t receive them and stay open for longer office hours until Election Day to receive them.

    Court of Common Pleas Judge David Ridge ordered the remedy after holding a hearing Thursday about problems the election office and its vendor, ElectionIQ, had in delivering ballots through the U.S. Postal Service.

    The number of missing ballots in just one county of the key battleground state is potentially significant. Former President Donald Trump won the state by about 40,000 votes in 2016 and President Joe Biden won it by about 80,000 votes in 2020.

    The vendor couldn’t confirm the status of 13,000 to 17,000 absentee ballots that were requested before the deadline, Ridge wrote.

    In addition, 1,200 county residents who requested ballots from being temporarily out of state said they hadn’t received ballots, Ridge wrote.

    And 365 duplicate ballots were sent to voters with barcodes that matched different voters, Ridge wrote.

    To remedy the problem, the Court of Common Pleas in Erie ordered the elections office in the county courthouse to:

    – Stay open longer on Friday and Monday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

    – Provide the voters with missing ballots new ones that could be returned to the office or a drop box there.

    – Send new ballots to out-of-state voters by overnight mail.

    -Bart Jansen

    Pennsylvania holds firm on wrong date absentee ballots

    The Pennsylvania Supreme Court reiterated its previously rulings Friday that county election officials not count absentee ballots that are undated or mistakenly dated, overturning a lower-court decision in Philadelphia that said the ballots should be counted.

    The unsigned decision said courts shouldn’t change election rules so close to the Nov. 5 election. The state had 2.1 million absentee ballots approved and nearly 1.5 million returned by Wednesday, but it won’t be clear how many have mistaken dates until they are processed on Election Day on Tuesday.

    State law prohibits counting ballots with missing or mistaken dates. The state Supreme Court upheld the law in September and October.

    But a Commonwealth Court decision found that ballots with date mistakes in a Philadelphia special election should be counted despite “meaningless dating provisions” in state law. The Supreme Court blocked that decision for the general election.

    Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley called the decision “another big win for election integrity.”

    “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the law, and the dated ballot requirement will be in effect for this election,” Whatley said. “Democrats have repeatedly tried to eliminate this important ballot safeguard, and we have stopped them each time.”

    – Bart Jansen

    Trump repeated his criticized claims that migrants are taking jobs from African Americans, during a speech in Warren, Mich., Friday. 

    And he touted his first administration’s record in a direct appeal to Black voters. 

    “With the exception of, who? Abraham Lincoln. I did more as president for the Black population than any other president in the history of our country,” Trump told the crowd. 

    The former president has previously highlighted the historically low unemployment rate for Black Americans when he was in the White House. But the record for lowest unemployment rate for Black Americans in U.S. history now belongs to President Joe Biden.

    -Savannah Kuchar

    The ACLU and Southern Poverty Law Center on Friday sued election board members for Georgia’s Cobb County, which is near Atlanta, for failing to send out 3,000 absentee ballots that were requested on time. 

    The legal groups want a Georgia court to order the board members to send the ballots through overnight mail and to include overnight return mailing for voters. They also want the ballots accepted as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, Nov. 5, and received by Nov. 8 – Georgia’s current deadline to receive ballots for overseas and uniformed voters. The current receipt deadline for the absentee ballots is Election Day.

    In a Thursday press release, the elections board admitted to the mistake, faulting some of its equipment. It said more than 3,000 requested absentee ballots hadn’t been mailed as of Wednesday, and it will send most of them through express or overnight mail by Friday morning with prepaid express return envelopes. It noted voters who haven’t received their absentee ballots can still vote in person.

    “Our team has been working around the clock to get the ballots out,” Cobb County Elections Director Tate Fall said in a statement included in the press release.

    The legal groups said Friday that the board’s proposed fixes for voters “are not nearly enough to safeguard their right to vote.”

    – Aysha Bagchi

    Arizona attorney general to investigate Trump’s Cheney comments

    Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said Friday that her office will probe if remarks Trump made about former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney violates the law.

    “I have already asked my criminal division chief to start looking at that statement, analyzing it for whether it qualifies as a death threat under Arizona’s laws,” Mayes, a Democrat, told NBC affiliate 12News.

    Cheney, who was top Republian on the special House panel that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol and Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election, has campaigned for Kamala Harris.

    Trump made the remarks during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at a campaign stop in Glendale, Arizona, on Thursday.

    “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?,” he said. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

    Later, Trump clarified: “All I’m saying about Liz Cheney is that she is a War Hawk, and a dumb one at that, but she wouldn’t have ‘the guts’ to fight herself,” he said on his social media platform, Truth Social.

    “There’s no true threat here. No call to commence imminent violence,” Anthony Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University said in a social media post. “His statement was vile, repugnant, and corrosive to our politics, but it is protected speech.”

    −Sudiksha Kochi and Bart Jansen

    Harris: Trump’s violent rhetoric ‘must be disqualifying’

    Harris on Friday condemned Trump’s comments that former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney should face armed combat over her support for U.S. wars overseas, saying that it “must be disqualifying” for the presidency. 

    “He has increased his violent rhetoric − Donald Trump has − about political opponents and in great detail, in great detail, suggested rifles should be trained on former Rep. Liz Cheney. This must be disqualifying,” she told reporters ahead of a rally in Wisconsin.

    Harris added that any candidate who uses that kind of “violent” rhetoric is “clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.”

    Trump made his remarks in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at a campaign event in Glendale, Arizona. 

    More: Cheney blasts Trump for ‘war hawk’ comment: ‘This is how dictators destroy free nations’

    “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?,” he said. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

    The White House on Friday also condemned Trump’s remarks, calling them unacceptable.

    “There is no place anywhere for any type of violence,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “And this is a time we shouldn’t be using inflammatory language. We should be specifically focusing on bringing the country together, and that’s what the president wants to see.”

    −Sudiksha Kochi and Michael Collins

    Trump: Kennedy will have ‘big role in healthcare’

    At a campaign stop in Dearborn, Mich., Friday, Trump was fielding questions from the press when former presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appeared beside him. 

    Gesturing to Kennedy, Trump told reporters, “He’s going to have a big role in healthcare.”

    Kennedy is perhaps best known for his anti-vaccine advocacy and conspiracy theories.

    )In 2023, the New York Post published a video of Kennedy, the son of slain Sen. Robert Kennedy and a nephew of the assassinated President John F. Kennedy, speculating that Covid-19 had been engineered to spare people of Jewish and Chinese heritage.

    “COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people,” he said in the video. “The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

    In a call with supporters earlier this week, Kennedy said Trump had “promised” him control of public health agencies. But a Trump transition team co-chair walked that back days later, telling CNN that Kennedy would not be named to any such position.

    Trump on Friday said he agrees with many of Kennedy’s ideas, without giving specifics.

    Harris criticized Trump over the potential decision, telling reporters in Wisconsin Friday that Kennedy is “the exact last person in America who should be setting health care policy for America’s families and children.”

    −Savannah Kuchar

    ‘He’s talking about sharks’: Milwaukee mayor mocks Trump

    Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson made fun of former President Donald Trump on Friday night for his tendency to get off topic at his rallies. 

    Johnson began the riff by slamming Trump for reportedly calling the city “horrible” in a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers earlier in the year.

    “He called us horrible,” Jones said. “This man… he’s out there, he’s rambling on and on, he’s talking about sharks and batteries, he’s talking about Hannibal Lecter.”

    He continued, “He’s talking about immigrants who are, on the one hand, coming from insane asylums, and on the other hand, taking your jobs. Which that doesn’t really compute to me. How can somebody come from an insane asylum and also take a job? I don’t really get that.”

    – Francesca Chambers

    ‘Please talk to your friends,’ Harris tells voters in Wisconsin

    Vice President Kamala Harris’ supporters in Little Chute, Wisconsin, are voting, at least according to a show of hands at her Friday evening rally in the town that’s close to Green Bay.

    “We’re four days out. Who here has already voted,” Harris asked. 

    Hands shot up in the crowd and Harris received loud cheers and applause. “Oh wow,” she said in response, laughing. “Oh my goodness, that’s great, thank you.”

    “I want to ask a little more of you. Please talk to your friends, family, and neighbors,” she said.

    Harris added, “For anyone who’s not yet voted, no judgment.”

    It was Harris’ second rally of the day in Wisconsin, where more than 700,000 people had voted early as of Thursday morning. She had one earlier in Janesville and will speak in the evening in a suburb of Milwaukee.

    — Francesca Chambers

    Women’s March to host events Saturday before election 

    Thousands are expected to attend a #WeWontGoBack march in the nation’s capital and at locations across the country Saturday. 

    Attendees in Washington plan to march from Freedom Plaza to the White House beginning at 3 p.m. ET. The event will also feature mobile truck billboards reading, “We Won’t Back Down on Abortion,” according to organizers.  

    The march falls three days before the Nov. 5 election, capping a race that has been defined by a historic gender divide. 

    The Women’s March started as a worldwide protest on Jan. 21, 2017, the day after former President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Crowd scientists estimated the Washington march drew over 470,000 people and that millions participated in local marches nationwide. 

    −Rachel Barber 

    Climate change on voters’ minds after hurricanes, poll finds 

    Voters in states affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton might be thinking more about climate change when they cast a ballot next Tuesday. 

    In North Carolina, Florida, and Georgia, 32% of voters said recent storms made climate a more important issue, according to a Climate Cabinet poll released Friday. That is 4% higher than the national average. 

    Across the country, 51% of respondents said they believed extreme weather events are becoming more frequent because of man-made climate change. Only 21% said an increase in extreme weather events is not caused by man-made climate change. 

    The poll of 1,000 voters in each state, totaling 3,000, had a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points. The national poll of 2,000 adults had a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points. 

    −Rachel Barber 

    Russian misinformation video gaining traction in Georgia, intelligence officials say

    A video claiming that Haitian nationals are voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia is a work Russian misinformation, multiple intelligence agencies wrote in a joint statement Friday.

    The statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Cyber Infrastructure and Security Agency, and the FBI came in addition to public comments from the Georgia Secretary of State’s office identifying the video as false.

    “This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans,” the statement said, warning that the coming days could see “additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans.”

    More: US intelligence says Russia is behind video of ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania

    Gabriel Sterling, chief operations officer for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, also refuted the claims on X after it was shared to the account of Amy Kremer, a Georgia resident whose organization coordinated Donald Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, rally on the Ellipse.

    “No responsible person would retweet this ridiculously obvious lie and disinformation,” Sterling said. “Those doing so are acting to further the efforts of America’s enemies and undermine the security of our nation.”

    −Erin Mansfield 

    Schumer predicts Dem Senate wins in Texas, Florida and… Nebraska?

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told supporters earlier this week that he thinks Democrats could flip three seats on Election Day, despite the party’s steep odds to retain control of the chamber.

    Democrats have “decent changes” of picking up Texas, Florida and Nebraska, Schumer said during a virtual rally Wednesday. The remarks were first reported by POLITICO.

    More: Nebraska independent Dan Osborn could be poised to shake up U.S. Senate

    However, the candidate running against incumbent GOP Sen. Deb Fischer in Nebraska is a registered nonpartisan and has said he won’t caucus with either party. Independent candidate Dan Osborn told POLITICO Friday that Schumer will get “a rude awakening if he thinks I’m taking orders from him.”

    Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is running against Democratic Rep. Colin Allred, while Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., is up against former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. Both GOP candidates have a small advantage in the polls against their Democratic opponents.

    — Riley Beggin

    Vance opens Michigan rally with shot at Mark Cuban

    Ohio Sen. JD Vance opened his rally in Portage, Michigan, on Friday by taking on billionaire Mark Cuban’s comments that Trump doesn’t surround himself with “strong, intelligent women, ever.”

    The vice presidential candidate called out his wife Usha Vance, who made an appearance with him. 

    “I thought to myself, ‘Well, Mark, you know my wife is way out of your league,’” said Vance, adding that he’s especially grateful that she’s with him at the rally.

    More: This NBA team owner among richest donors of this election cycle. How much has she given?

    “So is Melania Trump, by the way. So is Susie Wiles, who’s running the Trump campaign,” Vance said. 

    Cuban made his remarks on “The View” Thursday, and later apologized on X, formerly Twitter.

    “When I said this during the interview, I didn’t get it out exactly the way I thought I did,” he wrote. 

    −Sudiksha Kochi

    Legendary presidential forecaster has ‘crows’ in his stomach

    Historian Allan Lichtman, who accurately predicted nine of the last 10 presidential elections, said he still thinks Kamala Harris will beat Donald Trump but that he feels particularly anxious this year.

    “I’ve been doing this for 42 years and every four years I have butterflies in my stomach,” he said in a video on his YouTube channel. “This year, I think I have a flock of crows in my stomach.”

    Lichtman said the candidates’ neck-and-neck polling in key swing states does not make him nervous but that he is worried about the fragility of the country’s democracy.

    Both presidential campaigns have cast their rival as a “threat to democracy” during the 2024 cycle. Trump has called Harris a “communist” and Harris has called Trump a “fascist.”

    — Rachel Barber

    Harris narrowly leads Trump in three ‘blue wall’ states, Marist polls find

    Vice President Kamala Harris holds narrow leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan in Wisconsin four days from the presidential election, according to new polls of the three “blue wall” states released Friday by Marist College that show the Democratic nominee gaining with independent voters.

    In Pennsylvania, Harris is ahead of Republican nominee Donald Trump 50%-48% among likely voters, Marist found, and leads Trump 51%-48% in Michigan and 50%-48% in Wisconsin.

    The polls − some of the most encouraging surveys for Harris in recent days − were taken Oct. 27 to Oct. 30. Each result is within the polls’ margins of errors of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points in Pennsylvania, 3.5 percentage points in Michigan and 3.4 percentage points in Wisconsin.

    Harris is buoyed in the polls by independent voters shifting her direction. In Pennsylvania, Harris leads 55%-40% with independents, Marist found, a turnaround after Trump had a 4-point advantage with Pennsylvania’s independent voters in September. Harris leads among independent voters 52%-46% in Michigan and 51%-46% in Wisconsin.

    –Joey Garrison 

    A new Emerson College/RealClearWorld poll released Friday found that among 700 likely voters, 48% said they would back Harris and 47% said they would back Trump. Two percent said they support a third-party, two percent said they were undecided and one percent said they won’t vote for either candidate. 

    The poll also highlighted the notable gender gap between the campaigns. 

    “Men and women in Nevada break in near opposite directions,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a news release. “Men break for Trump by nine percentage points, 52% to 43%, while women break for Harris by eight points, 52 to 44%.”

    The poll was conducted between Oct. 29 and Oct. 31. Both candidates are within the poll’s margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.

    — Sudiksha Kochi

    Rep. Debbie Dingell says 2024 election is the tightest she’s seen

    Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell said on CNN This Morning on Friday that she’s been through enough elections to say that she’s “never seen a tighter election.”

    Dingell famously warned Democrats during the 2016 election that then candidate Hillary Clinton was in trouble with Michigan voters, and later wrote in an op-ed that the party didn’t listen.

    Both Trump and Harris are deadlocked in the state, numerous polls show. A USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll found that Harris and Trump are tied, 47% to 47%,  among 500 likely voters. 

    Dingell said that Trump is working the state “very hard” and said that it was Michigan that delivered his presidency in 2016. She praised Harris for making “significant progress” with different groups including union workers.

    “I think that the African American community is much more engaged than I saw them a month ago. The Hispanic community, which quite frankly, wasn’t as energized has become energized this week, but there are other issues on the ground, so we just have a lot of work to do between now and Tuesday night when those polls close,” Dingell said. 

    — Sudiksha Kochi

    Brad Raffensperger warns of foreign interference in election, debunks viral video

    Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger issued a statement on Thurday night addressing a viral video that he said purportedly featured a Haitan immigrant claiming to have voted multiple times.

    “This is false and is an example of targeted disinformation we’ve seen in this and other elections,” he said. “It is likely foreign interference attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the 2024 Presidential election.”

    He added that the Cybsecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is investigating the origin of the video, and said it is likely “a production of Russian troll farms.” 

    Raffensperger also called on the leaders of social media platforms, including Elon Musk, to take the video down.

    — Sudiksha Kochi

    Senate poll roundup: Democrats have narrow edge in Rust Belt, Southwest

    Democratic Senate candidates continue to poll ahead of their GOP opponents in tight races in the Rust Belt and Southwest.

    Incumbent Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., polled 3 points ahead of Republican Dave McCormick in a new poll from USA TODAY and Suffolk University conducted from Oct. 27 to 30 with a margin of error of +/- 5.65 percentage points.

    Casey also polled ahead of McCormick by 2 percentage points in a new poll from Marist conducted Oct. 27 to 30 with a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points.

    Because both poll results are within the margin of error, it means the candidates could also reasonably be tied or McCormick could be slightly ahead.

    Two other new polls from Marist conducted over the same time frame in Michigan and Wisconsin show Democratic candidates there — Rep. Elissa Slotkin in Michigan and Sen. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin — beating their GOP opponents former Rep. Mike Rogers and businessman Eric Hovde by 6 and 3 percentage points respectively.

    The Michigan poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points and the Wisconsin poll has a margin of error of +/- 3.4 percentage points.

    And incumbent Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen is polling ahead of Republican nominee Sam Brown by 4 percentage points in Nevada, according to a new Emerson College poll with a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points. That poll was conducted Oct. 29 to 31.

    — Riley Beggin

    Jennifer Lopez says ‘every Latino in this country’ offended by Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally

    Actress and singer Jennifer Lopez said at Harris’ rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Thursday that Trump has “consistently worked to divide us.”

    She referenced Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally, during which comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage.” Lopez’s parents are both from Puerto Rico. 

    “At Madison Square Garden, he reminded us who he really is and how he really feels,” Lopez said, referring to Trump. “It wasn’t just Puerto Ricans who were offended that day, OK? It was every Latino in this country, it was humanity and anyone of decent character.”

    She then urged the crowd to get out to vote. 

    “You know what? We should be emotional. We should be upset. We should be scared and outraged. We should. Our pain matters. We matter,” Lopez said. “Your voice and your vote matters.”

    — Sudiksha Kochi

    Liz Cheney blasts Trump on X for ‘war hawk’ comment 

    Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney criticized Trump on X, formerly Twitter, after he called her a “war hawk” and said that guns should be “trained on her face.”

    “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant,” Cheney wrote on X with the hashtags #Womenwillnotbesilenced and #VoteKamala.

    Trump made the comments during an interview with former Fox host Tucker Carlson at an event in Glendale, Arizona. He claimed that she wanted to keep American troops in Syria and Iraq.

    “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?,” he said. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

    Trump’s disparaging rhetoric about his political opponents has increased with the Nov. 5 general election approaching – with the Cheney comments being the latest. He’s previously labeled his opponents “garbage” and “human scum.”

    Cheney, one of Trump’s most vocal critics, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and has been campaigning with her in recent weeks. She was previously the vice chair of the now-dissolved House select committee investigating the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and has condemned the former president’s actions on that day.  

    — Sudiksha Kochi

     Former President Donald Trump is involved in four criminal cases, but the most important verdict in his legal future may be delivered on Election Day on Tuesday. If he wins, all his charges could be dropped or postponed for at least four years. If he loses, he potentially faces swift sentencing in one case and trials in the other three.

    If Trump were not a candidate for president, his legal trouble would be unavoidable. He is currently scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 26 on 34 felony counts in his New York hush money case. Two trials loom − one in federal court in Washington, D.C., and one in Georgia state court − on charges he tried to steal the 2020 election. In Florida, a Trump-appointed federal judge dismissed charges that Trump mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House. But that reprieve could be temporary, as prosecutors appealed the decision.

    -Bart Jansen and Aysha Bagchi

    With days before Tuesday’s Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are neck-and-neck in Pennsylvania, one of several key swing states that could determine the winner, a new exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk poll shows.

    Harris and Trump are tied with 49% of the vote each, according to a statewide poll of 500 likely voters conducted from Oct. 27 to 30 with a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

    A poll of 300 likely voters in Erie County, which could indicate which way the state trends, was also tied 48% to 48%. Northampton County, another Pennsylvania bellwether, leaned slightly towards Trump, with 50% saying they supported him, to Harris’ 48%. The results of the county polls are within the margin of error of 5.65 percentage points. 

    –Cybele Mayes-Osterman and Karissa Waddick

    The 2024 race for the White House is set to be neck-and-neck until Election Day. In Real Clear Politics’ average of national polls, Donald Trump leads Kamala Harris by just 0.5 percentage points, well within the margin of error for each of the surveys included.

    It’s even closer in some of the crucial battleground states. For example, Harris leads Trump by 0.2 percentage points in Real Clear Politics’ average of Wisconsin polls.

    – Marina Pitofsky

    Got election questions? Sign up for USA TODAY’s On Politics newsletter for breaking news and exclusive analysis.

    Donald Trump is holding a rally Friday afternoon in Warren, Michigan, located north of Detroit. Trump won Michigan in the 2016 race for the White House, but President Joe Biden picked it up in the 2020 contest.

    Trump will hold a Friday evening rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, another crucial midwestern state he won in 2016 but lost in 2020.

    – Marina Pitofsky

    In her fifth visit to the Milwaukee area since launching her presidential campaign, Kamala Harris will host a rally in the Wisconsin city Friday with a slate of musical performers.

    Cardi B is listed as a guest speaker for the event. Flo Milli, the Isley Brothers, MC Lyte, GloRilla and others are set to perform for the swing state crowd.

    – Maia Pandey

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