Twenty-four hours after holding a rally in Wisconsin on Saturday — which left some observers scratching their heads – Donald Trump will speak in Erie. Pennsylvania on Sunday.
With the Secret Service balking at outdoor rallies over security concerns, the former president will be speaking a the Bayfront Convention Center, 1 Sassafras Pier which can hold approximately 4,500 MAGA fans.
Fox News personalities Howard Kurtz and Kat Timpf agreed that former First Lady Melania Trump's book tour was "odd" because she was absent from her husband's presidential campaign.
Kurtz, a Fox News host, reflected Sunday on the former first lady's book tour after she sat for an interview on Fox News.
"Just briefly, you know, she writes a lot about her time in the fashion industry and so forth, but is the timing sort of odd?" Kurtz wondered. "Because she has barely been visible in this campaign."
"Yeah, it is odd, right?" Timpf agreed. "She elected to not speak at the RNC. She pointed to a letter that she'd written in the wake of the assassination attempt."
"It is a very odd timing, but honestly, I mean, she's a very polished woman," she added. "I mean, she's very—because she doesn't speak often, right? And she does come off to me as quite likable."
Fox News pundit Jason Chaffetz, a former Republican congressman, complained about the timing of a scandal involving Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor in North Carolina.
On Sunday, the Fox News Media Buzz program hosted a panel discussion about Robinson's comments on a pornographic website, which included calling himself a "Black Nazi" and defending slavery.
Host Howard Kurtz noted that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump had declined to withdraw his endorsement of Robinson.
"Trump is, I think, being very kind to Mark Robinson by not indicting his character further," Democratic strategist Lucy Caldwell observed.
For his part, Chaffetz said he did not expect Robinson's scandal to negatively impact Trump in North Carolina.
"You know, some of these things that come out when the ballots are already printed. Really, did it have to come out now?" Chaffetz moaned. "How long did they actually know about this story? That never really passes the basic sniff test."
"Yeah, well, there is the question of where it came from," Kurtz agreed.
Caldwell, however, accused the two panelists of letting Robinson off the hook.
"Yeah, I just have to say around the timing question, I don't think that we should spend too much time on that when we are, as a means of doing that, we are making it such that Mark Robinson isn't held accountable," she explained. "These are credible reports. Some of them did come out as early as August. There was still plenty of time for him to be replaced."
Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took advantage of an appearance on CNN's "Inside Politics" on Sunday morning to take a shot at Rep. Matt Gaetz and bring up new allegations the Florida Republican has been accused of attending drug and sex parties with teenage girls by the young lady's mother.
Speaking with CNN host Manu Raju on the anniversary of his being ousted as speaker — with Gaetz leading the charge — McCarthy insisted his Florida nemesis came after him because he wanted a probe into accusations he paid teen girls for sex to go away and the then-House speaker balked.
McCarthy made a point of noting the new allegations against Gaetz contained in a late-night legal filing last week.
"I'm not making any claims, I'm just saying somebody is sitting in jail for 11 years that was with him. They just had depositions that came out days before where a girl who is a junior in high school dropped off by her mother to a party with drugs and sex," McCarthy explained.
"You have Venmo payments from Matt Gatez to her. You have emails from Matt Gaetz requesting that young girl to come back to the next party to the individuals who's sitting in there [jail]," he elaborated. "I'll let the courts and Ethics [Committee] decide that — but all the facts there lay out and I think young women deserve justice."
Fox News host Howard Kurtz said he couldn't defend Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump after Democratic strategist Tim Hogan pointed out that the former president often "slips into lunacy."
During a panel discussion on the Fox News Media Buzz program, Hogan pointed to statistics from the conservative Cato Institute that showed "the Biden Department of Homeland Security removed a higher percentage of arrested border crossers in its first two years than the Trump administration did in its last two."
Outkick writer Mary Katherine Ham argued that Vice President Harris should be subjected to the same scrutiny as Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), who has asserted that Haitians in his state are eating pets. Trump then picked up the claim and repeated it.
"You had Karl Rove on this network yesterday talking about how the numbers on immigration. Yes, it's still an advantage for Trump, but that is sliding away from him in some battleground states in Arizona," Hogan pointed out. "But also nationally, so I think it is smart to go at some of his advantages, and also, you know, when he talks about the issue, sometimes he slips into lunacy."
Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake called Vice President Kamala Harris "despicable" for visiting the U.S. border even though Republicans have called on the Democratic candidate to do just that.
In an interview on Sunday, host Maria Bartiromo asked Lake to react to Harris' visit to the border in Arizona.
"Your reaction to Kamala Harris's border visit in Arizona on Friday," Bartiromo said.
"I found it despicable," Lake replied. "She spent 20 minutes on the border. She's been the border czar, Maria, for almost four years now."
"And she came down, I think to make her friends in the mainstream media happy so that they could finally say she visited the border," the GOP candidate complained. "Spent 20 minutes staring down at her feet, standing next to the wall."
"I was surprised she didn't call Joe Biden and say, we did it, Joe. We destroyed America, because that's exactly what they're attempting to do."
On Sunday morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) sat by silently while CNN "State of the Union" host Jake Tapper thoroughly ripped apart claims he made about violent immigrant criminals entering the U.S. under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
With the CNN host calling out Donald Trump for labeling his 2024 presidential opponent as "mentally disabled" in Wisconsin on Saturday, the South Carolina Republican preferred to talk about an ICE report alleging an invasion of immigrants.
Blowing off Tapper's question about the Harris smear, Graham changed the subject with, "I just think the better course to take is to prosecute the case that her policies are destroying the country. "
"They're crazy liberal, 400,000 people have been let loose in our country. 16,000 people convicted of being a rapist, 13,000 convicted murderers, and 400,000 people generally convicted of crimes were released on her watch it is not going to get better," Graham complained.
"Okay, so I saw that statistic and we dove into it, our fact fact-checker," Tapper replied while looking at documents in his hand. "That statistic is actually over decades. So some of those people you're talking about are people that came into the country during Trump. And, second of all, some of them are in prison, a lot of them are in prison, not ICE prisons, but federal prisons for their crimes."
Not disputing Tapper's reply, Graham parried, "The man who killed Laken Riley in Georgia was released by the Biden/Harris administration, on parole because they had no capacity at the border to hold him. That's not a reason to parole people."
"I promise you there have been women been raped and murdered, people have been hurt by illegal immigrants released in this country without the detention. It is a nightmare, it's crazy," he exclaimed.
Donald Trump Jr., son of former President Donald Trump, claimed "total" vindication after pushing his father to pick unpopular Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) as the Republican vice presidential running mate.
During a Sunday interview on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo noted Donald Trump Jr.'s role in picking Vance as the Republican running mate.
"Don, it has been said that you were among those encouraging your father to choose J.D. Vance as his running mate," Bartiromo explained. "He did. Now he goes head-to-head [in a debate] against Tim Walz on Tuesday night."
"Listen, J.D. has been incredible," Donald Trump Jr. replied. "Every time I watch him, whether it's the Sunday morning shows, just dismantling the left on their home turf, I just feel totally vindicated in all of that decision."
"He's been absolutely outstanding," he continued. "J.D. is a guy of substance."
"He's a guy that's lived that American dream, coming out of Appalachia to become now the vice-presidential candidate for the Republican Party in the United States."
The former president's son called Walz "the exact opposite" of Vance.
"He lies about each and every thing," he said of Walz. "He makes every mistake in the book."
"His greatest accomplishment seems to be he's the guy that was able to put tampons in boys' bathrooms in schools, and the guy that let the main city of the state that he's supposedly the governor of burn to the ground without any confidence," Donald Trump Jr. added. "I mean, you couldn't really pick a greater dichotomy of individuals, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun to watch."
According to polls, Vance is one of the most unpopular running mates in U.S. history.
Fox News host Shannon Bream confronted Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) by noting that "women just don't trust" former President Donald Trump's agenda.
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Bream noted Trump was trailing Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia.
"And part of that is a gender gap with women who say they do not trust you or him," she explained. "On issues of abortion or IVF this week, Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, the GOP said they're going to take a vote on this."
"But it's not going to work," she continued. "It's not working, in particular, not working. How can the GOP — Is it possible to fix it? Because women just don't trust you guys on that one."
Britt said the solution was for Trump to talk to the voters.
"Look, there's been no stronger supporter of IVF than President Trump," she insisted. "Senator Ted Cruz and I sent a letter with all 49 Republican senators signing on saying they strongly support nationwide access to IVF."
Bream responded with a fact-check.
"So you voted against a measure, though, that was offered up by Democrats on IVF in the Senate there, and they continue to point to that to say Republicans aren't supportive of protecting IVF," the Fox News host said. "Why did you vote no?"
"This is politics at its worst," Britt complained before blaming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
"Instead of putting the farm bill on the floor, which we do every five years, and our farmers are hurting," Britt argued. "You can talk to any farmer in any corner of this country, and they say it is challenging to make ends meet and we know food security as national security instead of putting any of those bills on the floor."
"That bill did not protect religious freedom, something that we have agreed is a bipartisan issue of something we do, you know, consistently," she added.
ABC News host Martha Raddatz interrupted a top surrogate for Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance Sunday after he refused to deny false claims that Haitians are eating pets in Springfield, Ohio.
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN), who is helping Vance prepare for the vice presidential debate by playing the part of Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, appeared on ABC's This Week program.
"Trump last night called Kamala Harris mentally disabled," Raddatz noted. "He said that Joe Biden became that way, she was born that way. Do you think Kamala Harris is mentally disabled? Do you approve of that kind of language?"
"I think Kamala Harris is the wrong choice for America," Emmer stated. "I think Kamala Harris is actually as bad or worse as the administration that we've witnessed for the last four years, Martha."
"Congressman, do you approve of that language?" the host interrupted. "Do you approve of that language, Donald Trump calling her mentally disabled, mentally impaired?"
"I think we should stick to the issues," Emmer admitted.
Raddatz moved on to the topic of immigration.
"I can't believe we're still talking about this, but the baseless claims elevated by Vance and Trump that Haitian migrants were eating their pets," the host said. "If the moderators in the debate ask Vance about this, should he finally make clear it is not true?"
"That's such a distraction," Emmer deflected. "The people in the mainstream media want to put up these shiny objects to distract people from what they see happening every day."
A combative Kevin McCarthy continued to talk over CNN host Manu Raju on Sunday morning multiple times when confronted with Donald Trump's attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris and immigrants living in the United States,
The "Inside Politics" segment got off to an awkward start when CNN's Raju pointed out it is the one-year anniversary of the former House speaker's ouster which led him to eventually leave Congress.
What followed was Raju repeatedly attempting to get the California Republican to address Donald Trump calling Harris a "mentally disabled person" during a speech in Wisconsin on Saturday, only to have McCarthy blow off the questions with multiple rants about 425,000 illegal immigrants allegedly living in the U.S.
When Pressed over Trump and running mate J.D. Vance's smears of Haitian immigrants eating people's pets in Ohio, McCarthy again deflected when asked if Trump should admit he was wrong.
"I would continue to lay out the facts," McCarthy parried.
"There are no facts, " Raju interjected.
"Let me finish my sentence, I appreciate your engagement, "McCarthy replied. "When you ask a question, let me finish."
"Sure," the CNN host replied only to have McCarthy once again repeat his claim about the 425,000 immigrants in the country "illegally" without addressing the beleaguered Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.
"That's not what the Haitian migrants ––," Raju interrupted.
"I know what you're talking about, but I'm trying to make a point here!" McCarthy snapped. "Because you want to pick one specific issue, you want to know why people are upset."
NBC's "Saturday Night Live" opened up its latest season with former president Donald Trump (played by James Austin Johnson) begging fans to stay at his rally while Vice President Kamala Harris (played by Maya Rudolph) introduces the "white dudes" who support her.
In the star-studded cold open, the character of ABC's David Muir, played by Andrew Dismukes, shows dueling Harris and Trump rallies to show his objectivity.
At the Harris rally, the vice president notes that her "vibe slaps" and introduces husband Douglas Emhoff (played by Andy Samberg), as well as Jim Gaffigan as Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz.
Harris dances as the feed cuts to a Trump rally, where the ex-president's character is portrayed standing behind a massive, bulletproof protective shield. Trump is begging his fans to stay at his rally, noting that the doors are locked.
"Where are you going?" Trump asks, before mentioning the gunshots the real Trump faced at a rally in Pennsylvania. He also said, "We miss Joe Biden."
"We had this in the bag but then they did a switcheroo," Trump said.
"They're eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. They're taking the pets and they're doing freak offs," he added. "They're doing a Diddy."
Trump went on to V.P. pick J.D. Vance (played by Bowen Yang), whom the ex-president said is "in many ways" a bad pick. The bulletproof glass slid away as Vance began to speak.
"You guys are awesome," Vance says before mentioning Project 2025. Muir then abruptly cut away from Trump's rally, saying the Trump campaign requested the impromptu shift.
