Election 2024 Latest: Trump and Harris zero in on economic policy plans ahead of first debate

The two presidential nominees are using the week before their debate to sharpen their economic messages about who could do more for the middle class. Vice President Kamala Harris discussed her policy plans on Wednesday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, while Donald Trump will address the Economic Club of New York on Thursday.

Harris used the New Hampshire campaign stop to propose an expansion of tax incentives for small businesses, a pro-entrepreneur plan that may soften her previous calls for wealthy Americans and large corporations to pay higher taxes. Trump, meanwhile, is betting that Americans crave trillions of dollars in tax cuts — and that growth will be so fantastic that it’s not worth worrying about budget deficits.

The candidates will debate next week in what will be their first meeting ever. The nation’s premier swing state, Pennsylvania, begins in-person absentee voting the week after. By the end of the month, early voting will be underway in at least four states with a dozen more to follow by mid-October.

In just 62 days, the final votes will be cast to decide which one of them will lead the world’s most powerful nation.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the Latest:

Harris accepts rules for Sept. 10 debate with Trump on ABC, including microphone muting

Vice President Kamala Harris has accepted the rules set forth for next week’s debate with former President Donald Trump, although the Democratic nominee says the decision not to keep both candidates’ microphones live throughout the matchup will be to her disadvantage.

The development, which came Wednesday by way of a letter from Harris’ campaign to host network ABC News, seemed to mark a conclusion to the debate over microphone muting, which had for a time threatened to derail the Sept. 10 presidential debate at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.

Republican Liz Cheney says she’ll vote for Kamala Harris

Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney on Wednesday said she would support Kamala Harris for president, ending weeks of speculation about how fully the member of a GOP dynasty-turned-Trump critic would embrace the Democratic ticket.

Cheney, who co-chaired the House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, became a fierce Trump critic and was ousted in her 2022 Republican primary in Wyoming as a result, made her announcement at an event at Duke University. In a video posted on the social media network X, she finished by talking about the “danger” she believed Trump still poses to the country.

“I don’t believe that we have the luxury of writing in candidates’ names, particularly in swing states,” she said. “As a conservative, as someone who believes in and cares about the Constitution, I have thought deeply about this. Because of the danger that Donald Trump poses, not only am I not voting for Donald Trump, but I will be voting for Kamala Harris.”

Read more here.

That photo of people wearing ‘Nebraska Walz’s for Trump’ shirts? They’re distant cousins

A sister of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz says she doesn’t recognize the people wearing “Nebraska Walz’s for Trump” T-shirts in a photo that is making the rounds on social media. It turns out they are distant cousins.

The photo shows eight smiling people wearing navy pro-Trump shirts, underneath a “Trump 2024 — Take America Back” sign. The photo was eventually reposted by former President Donald Trump, who wrote on his Truth Social platform: “It is a Great Honor to have your Endorsement. I look forward to meeting you soon!”

The photo was first posted on X by Charles Herbster, a former candidate for governor in Nebraska who had Trump’s endorsement in the 2022 campaign. Herbster’s spokesperson, Rod Edwards, said the people in the photo are cousins to the Minnesota governor, who is now Kamala Harris’ running mate.

“The family in the picture are the descendants of Francis Walz, who was brother to Tim Walz’s grandfather,” Edwards said. “They’re all Walzes and spouses.”

Read more here.

Harris calls Georgia school shooting ‘senseless tragedy’

Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the “senseless tragedy” of Wednesday’s school shooting in Georgia during a campaign stop in New Hampshire.

“It’s just outrageous that every day, in our country, in the United States of America, that parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive.”

“She added, “We’ve got to stop it. It doesn’t have to be this way.”

Harris talked about meeting with college students who told her they grew up with active shooter drills.

“Our kids are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential and some part of their big beautiful brain is concerned about a shooter busting through the door of the classroom,” she said.

Jimmy McCain, a son of the late Arizona senator, registers as a Democrat and backs Harris

Jimmy McCain, a son of former Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, said this week he has registered as a Democrat and will vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, a valuable nod of support for the Democratic nominee in a battleground state.

Meanwhile, Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, is scheduled to appear outside Phoenix Wednesday at a rally with the conservative youth organizing group Turning Point USA, which has been instrumental in remaking the Arizona GOP as a faithful organ of former President Donald Trump’s “Make America great again” movement.

Jimmy McCain’s endorsement and Vance’s Turning Point USA appearance reflect the disparate segments of the GOP that Harris and Trump are trying to reach. Democrats are appealing to traditional conservatives disillusioned by Trump’s takeover of the GOP, while Republicans are looking to shore up their base and ensure that their young supporters turn out.

Jimmy McCain said he had been an independent since leaving the Republican Party after Trump became its standard bearer in 2016. He decided during a nine-month overseas deployment that just ended to switch his registration to Democratic and announce it publicly.

Kennedy files lawsuit in Wisconsin, trying to force his way off the state's presidential ballot

MADISON, Wis. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has filed a lawsuit in Wisconsin trying to force his way off of the presidential battleground state’s ballot after the state elections commission voted to keep him on it.

Kennedy suspended his campaign in August and endorsed Republican Donald Trump. Kennedy said he would try to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states while telling his supporters they could continue to back him in the majority of states where they are unlikely to sway the outcome.

Kennedy also filed a lawsuit in neighboring Michigan but a judge ruled Tuesday that he must remain on the ballot. A Kennedy lawsuit filed on Friday in North Carolina seeking removal from the ballot is pending.

Republicans and Democrats have until 5 p.m. on the first Tuesday in September ahead of an election to certify their presidential nominee. Independent candidates like Kennedy can only withdraw before the Aug. 6 deadline for submitting nomination papers.

State law does not provide a way for independent presidential candidates to remove themselves from the ballot after they have submitted nomination papers unless they die. Kennedy filed his papers before the Aug. 6 deadline.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission, citing that law, voted 5-1 last week to approve Kennedy’s name for the ballot after an attempt by Republican commissioners to remove him failed.

Kennedy is asking the court for an order that bars the elections commission from putting his name on the ballot and puts on hold its vote last week placing him on the ballot.

The US is preparing to accuse Russia of disinformation campaigns targeting the presidential election

The Biden administration is preparing Wednesday to accuse Russia of disinformation campaigns targeting the presidential election, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Intelligence agencies have previously accused Russia of using disinformation to try to interfere in the election. But the announcement expected from Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to show the depth of U.S. concerns and signal legal actions against those suspected of being involved.

The people who discussed the announcement spoke on condition of anonymity with The Associated Press because the matter was not public. One of the people said the announcement will involve, in part, an accusation of the use of Russia-state media to spread disinformation and propaganda.

Garland and other law enforcement leaders are expected to speak briefly at the opening of a meeting of the Justice Department’s elections threats task force.

In a speech last month, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Russia was the primary threat to the election.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and “his proxies are using increasingly sophisticated techniques in their interference operations. They’re targeting specific voter demographics and swing-state voters to manipulate presidential and congressional election outcomes,” she said. “They’re intent on co-opting unwitting Americans on social media to push narratives advancing Russian interests.”

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.

CNN first reported the expected announcement.

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Associated Press reporters Eric Tucker and Matthew Lee contributed to this report from Washington.

Election Day is about 2 months away and ready or not, the first ballots could go out within days

It might feel like the presidential election is still a long way off. It’s not.

Election Day on Nov. 5 is only about two months away, and major dates, events and political developments will make it fly by. The stretch between now and then will go as fast as summer break from school in most parts of the country.

The first mail ballots are scheduled to be sent to voters this Friday. The first presidential debate is set for Sept. 10. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, is scheduled to be sentenced in his New York hush money case on Sept. 18. And early in-person voting will start as soon as Sept. 20 in some states.

▶ Here’s a look at why the calendar will move quickly.

DNC runs digital billboard focused on reproductive rights and Trump in Pennsylvania's capital city

As Trump returns to battleground Pennsylvania, his Democratic opponents argue that the former president’s plans around abortion and reproductive rights threaten health care for American women.

On Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee is running a digital mobile billboard in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, around the area where the GOP nominee will participate in a Fox News town hall.

The billboard focuses on reproductive rights, with news commentators referencing Project 2025 and saying Trump and Republicans “are not going to stop until they have all but eliminated access to reproductive health care in this country.”

Project 2025 is the term for the Heritage Foundation’s nearly 1,000-page handbook for the next Republican administration, which has become a chief target for Democrats’ ire in the general election. Trump has said Project 2025 is not related to his campaign.

DNC spokesperson Addy Toevs said in a statement that “banning abortion and threatening access to IVF is central to Donald Trump Project 2025 agenda for a second term.”

Trump has said that, if he wins, he wants to make IVF treatment free for women, but has not detailed how he would fund the plan or how it would work.

Last month, he said he would vote no on a Florida ballot measure that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban.

Takeaways from AP’s report on JD Vance and the Catholic ‘postliberals’ in his circle of influence

Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s 2019 conversion to Catholicism helped shape his political worldview, he has written.

It has also put him in close touch with a Catholic intellectual movement, viewed by some critics as having reactionary or authoritarian leanings, that has been little known to the American public.

That’s changing with Vance’s rise to the national stage as the Republican vice presidential nominee and running mate to former President Donald Trump.

The professors and media personalities in this network are generally known as “postliberal.” Vance has used that term to describe himself as well.

▶ Here are some takeaways from the AP’s reporting.

Harris is visiting New Hampshire, away from bigger swing states, to tout her small business tax plan

Vice President Kamala Harris is using a New Hampshire campaign stop on Wednesday to propose an expansion of tax incentives for small businesses, a pro-entrepreneur plan that may soften her previous calls for wealthy Americans and large corporations to pay higher taxes.

She wants to expand from $5,000 to $50,000 tax incentives for small business startup expenses, to eventually spur 25 million new small business applications over four years.

Harris is expected to stop at Throwback Brewery in North Hampton, outside Portsmouth, and meet with co-founders Annette Lee and Nicole Carrier. Their brewery got support to open its current location through a small business credit and installed solar panels using federal programs championed by the Biden administration, according to the Harris campaign.

The New Hampshire trip is a rare deviation for a candidate who is spending most of her time in Midwest and Sun Belt states with pivotal roles in November’s election.

▶ Read more here.

JD Vance’s Catholicism helped shape his views. So did this little-known group of Catholic thinkers

By his own account, Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s 2019 conversion to Catholicism provided a spiritual fulfillment he couldn’t find in his Yale education or career success.

It also amounted to a political conversion.

Catholicism provided him with a new way of looking at the addictions, family breakdowns and other social ills he described in his 2016 bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

“I felt desperate for a worldview that understood our bad behavior as simultaneously social and individual, structural and moral; that recognized that we are products of our environment; that we have a responsibility to change that environment, but that we are still moral beings with individual duties,” he wrote in a 2020 essay.

His conversion also put Vance in close touch with a Catholic intellectual movement, viewed by some critics as having reactionary or authoritarian leanings, that was little known to the American public until Vance’s rise to the national stage as the Republican vice presidential nominee.

▶ Read more here.

Federal judge rejects Donald Trump’s request to intervene in wake of hush money conviction

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump’s request to intervene in his New York hush money criminal case, thwarting the former president’s latest bid to overturn his felony conviction and delay his sentencing.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein ruled that Trump had not satisfied the burden of proof required for a federal court to take control of the case from the state court where it was tried.

Hellerstein’s ruling came hours after Manhattan prosecutors raised objections to Trump's effort to delay post-trial decisions in the case while he sought to have the federal court step in.

In a letter to the judge presiding over the case in state court, the Manhattan district attorney’s office argued that he had no legal obligation to hold off on post-trial decisions and wait for Hellerstein to rule.

Read more here.