The Latest: Trump to campaign in Michigan, Wisconsin; Harris will have sit-down interview with CNN

Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin as he ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will sit down Thursday for their first major television interview of their presidential campaign as the duo travels in southeast Georgia on a bus tour.

The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash will give Harris a chance to quell criticism that she has eschewed uncontrolled environments.

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Here’s the Latest:

The path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win presidency runs through 7 states

With most states reliably red or blue, the path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency runs through seven states where the contest is expected to be narrowly decided.

Those are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All together, they are home to only 18.3% of the country's population.

The Associated Press has been tracking the campaign appearances of the Democratic and Republican tickets since March.

Since then, Pennsylvania has been getting the most love from both campaigns, with a total of 21 visits, including one planned this coming weekend. Wisconsin and Michigan are close behind with 17 and 16, respectively.

Most states haven’t been visited at all, and a handful with clusters of wealth, such as California, get attention not for their voters but when the campaigns want to tap the wallets of the rich.

Vance greeted with cheers and boos at appearance before top firefighters union

JD Vance was greeted with some cheers and some boos during an appearance before a top firefighters union.

Vance appeared Thursday at the annual meeting of the International Association of Firefighters in Boston.

After receiving a mixed reaction to some of his comments, he remarked that it “sounds like we've got some fans and some haters — that's OK."

One of Vance's remarks that elicited both cheers and jeers was that he and Trump “are the most pro-American worker ticket in history.”

The GOP vice presidential nominee’s appearance came a day after Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz addressed the same group. The organization’s political arm endorsed President Joe Biden’s candidacy in the 2020 campaign.

Vance got a larger reaction of cheers when he promised support for collective bargaining and more benefits for firefighters.

No audience, live mics or written notes, according to rules for upcoming debate between Trump and Harris

Next month’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump won’t have an audience, live microphones when candidates aren’t speaking, or written notes.

That's according to rules that host network ABC News shared this week with both campaigns.

A copy of the rules was provided to the Associated Press on Thursday by a senior Trump campaign official on condition of anonymity ahead of the network’s announcement. The Harris campaign on Thursday insisted it was still discussing the muting of mics with ABC.

The parameters now in place for the Sept. 10 debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, a disastrous performance for the incumbent Democrat that fueled his exit from the campaign.

Harris’ campaign had advocated for live microphones for the whole debate, saying in a statement that the practice would “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.”

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Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin in New York contributed.

Army says Arlington Cemetery employee ‘abruptly pushed aside’ during wreath-laying attended by Trump

The Army says an Arlington Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” during an altercation with a member of Trump's campaign staff that took place as Trump was attending a wreath-laying for service members killed in the Afghanistan war withdrawal.

In a statement Thursday, the Army said the employee was trying to make sure those participating in the wreath-laying ceremony were following the rules, and “acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption.”

The Trump campaign has been facing blowback since an NPR report said that two Trump campaign staff members had “verbally abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Federal law prohibits campaign or election-related activities within Army national military cemeteries.

The Trump campaign has claimed the Republican presidential nominee’s team was allowed to have a photographer during the Monday event and has contested the allegation that a campaign staffer pushed a cemetery official.

Trump campaign adviser Lewandowski says Harris has been dodging the news media

Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski says Vice President Kamala Harris has been dodging the news media ahead of her interview Thursday night on CNN.

Lewandowski, who was recently brought back to the Trump campaign, said the former president has conducted more than three dozen interviews in recent weeks while Harris refused to grant an interview to a major news outlet.

He also complained that Trump will have to “beat two Democratic nominees” after Harris’ “coronation” by Democrats, following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race. Harris “can’t hide” from the Biden administration’s record on jobs and inflation, Lewandowski told reporters on a call Thursday morning.

Polling shows ramped-up enthusiasm among Democrats since Harris became the presidential nominee

Democrats’ enthusiasm about their vote in November has surged over the past few months, according to polling from Gallup. About 8 in 10 Democrats now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting, compared with 55% in March.

This gives them an enthusiasm edge they did not have earlier this year. Republicans’ enthusiasm has increased by much less over the same period. About two-thirds of Republicans now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting.

Trump visiting swing districts in Michigan and Wisconsin as battleground campaigning ramps up

Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin as the former president ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.

Trump’s intense focus on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 continues with stops in the middle of Michigan and western Wisconsin.

Trump’s day starts with an afternoon rally in Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing. Trump won Eaton County, where part of Lansing is located, in both 2016 and 2020, but by a smaller margin the second time.

Later, he'll visit La Crosse, Wisconsin, for a town hall moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed him in Detroit. It will be Trump’s first visit to Wisconsin since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Harris, Walz will sit down for first major TV interview of their presidential campaign

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will sit down Thursday for their first major television interview of their presidential campaign as the duo travels in southeast Georgia on a bus tour.

The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash will give Harris a chance to quell criticism that she has eschewed uncontrolled environments, while also giving her a fresh platform to define her campaign and test her political mettle ahead of an upcoming debate with former President Donald Trump set for Sept. 10. But it also carries risk as her team tries to build on momentum from the ticket shakeup following Joe Biden’s exit and last week’s Democratic National Convention.

The CNN interview is set to air at 9 p.m. EDT. It was scheduled to be taped at 1:45 p.m. EDT at Kim’s Cafe, a Black-owned restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. The interview comes during Harris' two-day bus tour through southeast Georgia that culminates with an evening rally in the coastal city.

Joint interviews during an election year are a fixture in politics; Biden and Harris, Trump and Mike Pence, Barack Obama and Biden — all did them at a similar point in the race.