Obama criticizes comic's Puerto Rico remarks at Trump's rally

“These are fellow citizens he’s talking about," Obama said in Philadelphia.

Last Updated: October 29, 2024, 6:12 AM EDT

As we head into the final full week of campaigning before Election Day, the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll shows Kamala Harris with a slight 51-47% lead over Donald Trump among likely voters nationally -- but the polls in the battleground states remain essentially deadlocked within the margin of error.

Fallout continues over racist comments made at Trump's big rally on Sunday at Madison Square Garden and Harris is preparing for her "closing argument" Tuesday night on the Ellipse near the Capitol and White House in Washington.

Oct 29, 3:48 am

More than 47.5 million Americans have voted early

More than 47.5 million Americans have voted early as of just after 9 p.m. ET Monday, according to the Election Lab at the University of Florida.

Of the total number of early votes, 24,243,105 were cast in person and 23,384,971 were returned by mail.

President Joe Biden departs a polling station after casting his early voting ballot for the 2024 general elections on Oct. 28, 2024, in New Castle, Delaware.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

Oct 28, 2024, 6:32 PM EDT

Trump on Sunday rally: ‘A little spice’ is necessary

At a faith-focused campaign event on Monday, Trump touted his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday as a “great rally” and bragged about his “soft foul” language, saying “a little spice” is necessary.

Several speakers at the Sunday rally faced backlash for making racist and other controversial comments.

Trump quipped that Rev. Franklin Graham had told him he should stop using so much foul language.

Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a moderated Q&A with Pastor Paula White at the National Faith Advisory Summit, in Powder Springs, Georgia, Oct. 28, 2024.
Brendan McDermid/Reuters

“’Mr. President, it's Franklin Graham, and I just want to tell you, I love what you do, I love what you say. I love your stories. I think they're great, and keep telling them, but they'd be even better if you wouldn't use foul language,’” Trump recounted his exchange with Graham to laughs.

“So I thought about it, and I said, ‘I'm going to try.’ And I did try, and I'm not sure, I'm not sure I'd make the emphasis quite as good. I've been pretty good about it, but I'm not sure,” Trump said. “Everyone said, ‘Well, you need a little bit of something, a little spice, a little spice to juice them up a little bit.’ But I got that letter, and I sort of laughed. I said, ‘I'm not sure you're right about this.’”

“And sometimes I'll use a little bit not hard, not hard foul, but soft foul. We call it soft foul, but, you know, to emphasize something about somebody’s abilities, or whatever I might be talking about,” Trump said.

-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Kelsey Walsh and Soorin Kim

Oct 28, 2024, 5:09 PM EDT

Vance says people should 'stop getting so offended' after racist rally joke

Trump's running mate was pressed by reporters while campaigning in Wisconsin to weigh in on the controversy caused by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday.

JD Vance claimed he heard about the comments but didn’t see them. Vance, when asked if the racist jokes were the right tone for the Trump campaign's final argument, pivoted to attacking Harris, claiming her closing pitch is “essentially [was saying] that all of Donald Trump's voters are Nazis and you should get really pissed off about a comedian telling a joke. That is not the message of a winning campaign. And, most importantly, it's not the message of a person who's fit to be the president of the United States of America," Vance said.

"Maybe it's a stupid racist joke as you said, maybe it's not. I haven't seen it," Vance said. "I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the joke, but I think that we have to stop getting so offended at every little thing in the United States of America. I'm just, I'm so over it."

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie

Oct 28, 2024, 3:40 PM EDT

Harris touts CHIPS Act as she tours semiconductor facility

In a visit to a semiconductor facility in central Michigan, Harris praised the manufacturing work happening there and noted the importance of outpacing China.

“Look, we’ve got to win the competition for the 21st century,” she said at Hemlock Semiconductor in Saginaw. “We’re not going to have China beat us in the competition for the 21st century, and that’s about, then, doing the work that Corning is going to be doing about manufacturing of these solar panels, together with the work that you are doing here.”

Harris cited the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act as ways she has tried to boost America’s manufacturing power.

Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris walks to board Air Force Two to depart for Michigan, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Oct. 28, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

“I want to thank you all for what you're doing here, as a great example of what was a vision that we had -- the president and I and Congressman -- we're going to create a meaningful public investment in America's private industries through the CHIPS act, through the Inflation Reduction Act, and we're going to infuse it with billions of dollars, knowing that if we do that, as that old saying comes, if you build it, they will come,” she said.

Harris used the opportunity to slam Trump for “how he’d get rid of the CHIPS Act.” Trump criticized the bipartisan law while on Joe Rogan's podcast last week.

-ABC News' Will McDuffie

Oct 28, 2024, 2:04 PM EDT

Elon Musk's America PAC posts, then deletes, video calling Harris a 'C-Word'

Elon Musk's America PAC deleted a video that called Harris a "C-Word," using a wordplay to suggest an expletive, but instead calling her a "communist."

"America really can’t afford a ‘C-Word’ in the White House right now," the super PAC wrote as it introduced the video on X. The post was later deleted.

The ad began with a warning: "WARNING This ad contains multiple instances of the C word. Viewer discretion is advised."

"Kamala Harris is a C word. You heard that right? A big old C word. In fact, all of the other C words think she's the biggest C word of them all," a narrator said in the video.

Then with an image of a cat in a Soviet officer's uniform and an altered image of Harris wearing a Soviet hat, the video revealed the word in question was "communist," even though the video was clearly hinting at the expletive.

"That's right. She's a tax hiking, regulation loving, gun-grabbing communist. And the worst part, she's proud of it," the narrator says.

ABC News has reached out to America PAC about the video.

-ABC News' Benjamin Siegel and Soorin Kim

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