A New York Times opinion editor wrote Tuesday that while Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have run about the same number of ads in swing states, they're "worlds apart" in tone — and any notion from Trump that the Harris campaign has been too negative is "laughable."
Gus Wezerek published an analysis Tuesday after watching every presidential campaign ad that aired on broadcast stations from Aug. 1 to Oct. 25. After labeling them "positive," "contrast" or "negative," he found a "stark difference.
While Harris' ads varied in tone, Trump's ads, he found, were "mostly negative."
"Republicans have been much more consistent in their messaging," Wezerek said. "When Harris went high, they went low, over and over again."
The analysis comes after Trump told "Fox & Friends" earlier this month that he thinks networks shouldn't be allowed to run "negative ads" about him until after the election.
"In the old days, you never played negative ads. In other words, when I leave here, I’ll then be hit by five or six ads, and in the old days…” he said.
Trump's complaint about Harris’s "relatively few negative ads particularly laughable," wrote Wezerek.
"If the network applied the same standards to Trump, his campaign wouldn’t have many ads left to run," he concluded.
Vice President Kamala Harris will try to once again set herself apart from Donald Trump when she delivers her closing argument speech Tuesday night at the Ellipse in Washington D.C. – the site of the former president’s Jan. 6, 2021, remarks that followed the Capitol riot and insurrection attempt.
“America, we know what Donald Trump has in mind. More chaos. More division. And policies that help those at the very top and hurt everyone else. I offer a different path. And I ask for your vote,” Harris will say, according to early excerpts released of the speech.
In her address to the country, which comes a week before Election Day, Harris will offer a promise to the American people.
“I pledge to seek common ground and common sense solutions to make your lives better. I am not looking to score political points. I am looking to make progress. I pledge to listen to experts. To those who will be impacted by the decisions I make. And to people who disagree with me,” according to the first excerpts.
She will also seek to distinguish herself from Trump, whose campaign is on the offensive amid fallout from disturbing and racist remarks that emerged from his controversial New York City rally.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy. He wants to put them in jail. I’ll give them a seat at my table. And I pledge to be a president for all Americans. To always put country above party and above self.”
Former President Donald Trump is planning an event in Pennsylvania with prominent Puerto Rican supporters amid fallout from Puerto Rico being called a "floating island of garbage" at his weekend rally in Madison Square Garden.
But Victor Martinez, owner of the La Mega radio station, told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace that it's too late for Trump — he has done irreparable damage.
"He never backs down. He never apologizes," said Wallace. "Are you expecting him to apologize tonight for his political purpose? And do you think people will buy it?"
"Well, No. 1: No. I don't expect him to apologize," said Martinez. "And I'm glad you asked that question because I specifically asked my audience this morning that. I told my audience, 'Ok, so if all of a sudden Trump finds God and decides that he wants to apologize or take back or distance himself from those comments, would it be okay? Would you take it?' Audience overwhelmingly said, 'No, too late.' Some of them even said the train has left the station. He could have done it Sunday. He could have done it Monday. He could have done it this morning. And yet, he didn't."
"She called and she said, I follow Trump on Truth Social. And he found time yesterday at 2:00 — she was very specific, at 2:00 to go to Truth Social and criticize Fox News for having Michelle Obama on the air, but yet he hasn't found time to go to Truth Social and distance himself or apologize for what happened in his rally. So, those are the types of comments that I'm getting from the audience who obviously are now very engaged."
And it's not just his listeners, Martinez added — Puerto Rican celebrities and influencers are running with it at this point.
"Major Puerto Rican superstar Don Omar, who has been part of the 'Fast and Furious' movies and very well-known artist, just posted on his social media, 'Puerto Rico is my homeland and my identity. Today, more than ever, I raise my island's flag in pride. It's time to turn the page. We are not going back.' Supporting Kamala Harris. And another piece of breaking news. Jenniffer Gonzalez, the Puerto Rico representative in Washington and now also candidate for governor in Puerto Rico, a strong Trump supporter, just now in Puerto Rico television, said that these comments will cost Donald Trump in the states where Puerto Ricans live."
A veteran Democratic strategist made clear Tuesday how unprecedented the scenario that Donald Trump’s campaign has found itself in amid fallout over his controversial New York City rally with just a week to go before Election Day.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, and I’ve never seen any anything like this, this close to an election,” said Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist and frequent CNN political commentator. “So, if anything is ever going to matter about Donald Trump's racism and xenophobia – this can be it.”
The comments came on CNN’s “The Lead” after host Jake Tapper asked whether blowback from the disturbing remarks at Trump’s Sunday Madison Square Garden rally is “really a thing.”
“I know that Democrats want this to be a thing, but just like truth serum, is this really a thing?” Tapper asked.
Cardona said the offensive messaging could have an impact — especially in a battleground state like Pennsylvania with a large Puerto Rican community.
“Especially because of where it is Pennsylvania, right, almost 500,000 Puerto Ricans live there in addition to other Latinos, because this is offensive not just to Puerto Ricans, but to all Latinos, and I think a lot of sensible Americans as well,” Cardona said.
The strategist added that she’s heard anecdotal evidence pointing that people “are fired up, they are mad as hell.”
“I’ve heard a lot of Trump-supporting Puerto Ricans who are saying, ‘I am not going to vote for this guy and I’m going to tell all of my friends and family to vote for Kamala,” Cardona said.
Former Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL) added a dash of anecdotal evidence to support Cardona’s theory from a Pennsylvania rally he attended Tuesday with former President Bill Clinton.
“After the rally with Clinton, I had four people come up to me and tell me they weren't going to vote, but now they are, just four of them,” Walsh said.
A former Republican congressional candidate in Indiana offered a strange explanation after he was arrested for stealing sample ballots from a voting machine test, according to FOX 59.
Larry Savage, who previously ran for the GOP nomination in Indiana's 5th Congressional District, was serving as a local precinct committeeman in Madison County, when a pair of sample ballots during a test of the voting equipment went missing, said the report.
"A review of security footage, which was subsequently being live-streamed online, showed Savage handling the two missing ballots. He can also be heard confirming with an election official that these are 'absolutely, totally real ballots.' In the video Savage can be seen looking around the room before folding up two ballots and putting them in his sweatshirt pocket."
After this, Savage muttered to another woman in attendance, "f---ed up count," and left with the ballots. He later joined in that woman's Facebook Live, where he posted comments appearing to disparage the validity of the process, saying things like “3 ballots short!!! lol” and “Dontvtake [sic] anything.”
Police obtained a warrant to search Savage's home and car, and found the missing ballots in his car. Savage acknowledged he took the ballots when they arrived at his door.
Savage said he took the ballots thinking they were "sample" ballots — meaning they were test ballots designed to go through the system as real ballots would and verify everything was counted as expected — and thought it meant they were free samples for the public to take.
“If you go to Payless, or go wherever, it says sample and you usually can take a sample,” he said. “So that is the way I took it. I thought they were fake f---ing ballots.”
Police didn't buy the explanation. The ballots weren't marked "sample," and bore clear warnings that it was a crime to steal or tamper with them. Savage's also seemed to suggest on social media he deliberately took the ballots as part of a scheme to demand “fair, transparent elections” and “restore trust and protect civil rights.”
This comes amid other reports of criminal interference in ballots around the country, including a postal contract worker in Florida who dumped mail-in ballots in the woods, and incidents of mail-in ballots being burned in Arizona and Washington State.
Famed Democratic Party strategist James Carville — a longtime advisor of former President Bill Clinton — recently clapped back at a far-right X (formerly Twitter) user spreading a false claim about Carville's 2024 election outlook.
On Tuesday, the political account Bad Hombre, who is a far-right social media personality with more than 114,000 followers, tweeted that Carville was overly pessimistic about Vice President Kamala Harris' chances of victory next week. Without citing any sources, he claimed that former Clinton advisor "is telling campaign advisors and high-level donors behind the scenes that Kamala Harris is headed for a historic blowout, telling them she will lose every swing state and probably New Hampshire and Virginia too."
Carville responded directly to Bad Hombre's tweet with a tweet of his own, writing: "If this a— wipe can produce one credible person who will come forward and say they heard me say anything like this I will give $100 to the Trump campaign."
In reality, Carville is particularly bullish about the Democratic ticket in 2024. He recently wrote an op-ed for the New York Times explaining that he was "certain" Harris would emerge victorious after next week's election. His primary argument was that former President Donald Trump is a "repeat electoral loser" given his record of success since 2020. He also pointed out that Harris has a clear money advantage, which can prove to be a decisive factor in the final sprint of the election cycle.
However, his third point was that it was "just a feeling" that Harris would win. He admitted that his third point was more "emotional" than fact-based, but that his feelings were based on the fact that the vice president has put together a coalition that includes a vast swath of differing ideologies like former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), who is more commonly known by her initials, AOC.
"If the Cheneys and AOC get that the Constitution and our democracy are on the ballot," Carville wrote, "every true conservative and every true progressive should get it too."
"A vast majority of Americans are rational, reasonable people of good will," he continued. "For the past decade, Mr. Trump has infected American life with a malignant political sickness, one that would have wiped out many other global democracies."
Carville also notably published advice in the New York Times for Harris to "get under [Trump's] skin" ahead of their first and only televised debate on ABC News in September. He particularly encouraged Harris to "help Trump hurt himself" by "letting Trump be Trump."
"She should let him talk over her. Not just let him but goad him into spouting insane conspiracy theories about the previous election," Carville wrote. One of the most viral moments of that debate was ABC moderators fact-checking the former president's false claims that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election.
Bad Hombre's tweet was eventually labeled with a Community Note pointing out that Carville himself refuted the claim. Community Notes are crowd-sourced addendums on X meant to fact-check dubious claims that are spread to a wide audience.
Americans considering using their votes to punish Kamala Harris over her support of Israel should not forget “what they stand to lose” in the long term if Donald Trump were to take over foreign policy, a staff writer for The Atlantic warned Tuesday.
“Protest matters,” Gal Beckerman wrote in an editorial. “But we should not take for granted that we will always be able to protest.”
He added that the former president hasn’t concealed his views of dissenters, suggesting protesters should be thrown in jail for example.
And while “an emotional reaction to mass death” is understandable, Beckerman argued that a more fundamental issue is at stake. He urged anybody thinking of “revenge voting” – that is choosing not to vote, voting for a third-party candidate, or voting for Trump – “would also be punishing themselves.”
“Protesters angry over Kamala Harris’s support for Israel should not forget what they stand to lose,” he wrote, adding that factions in the Democratic Party exist that would put pressure on Harris over the issue.
Beckerman continued to build his case in his editorial by questioning: “Who would put pressure on Trump to care about Palestine? Tom Cotton? Marco Rubio: Stephen Miller?”
He concluded that “those who care about the Palestinian future need to live to fight another day on this issue, and to do so they need to exist in a country where it is possible to fight at all.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) reportedly told a crowd this week that "massive" changes will be coming to health care in the country if Donald Trump defeats Vice President Kamala Harris next week.
“Health care reform’s going to be a big part of the agenda," he said during a campaign event in Pennsylvania for House candidate Ryan Mackenzie, according to footage obtained by NBC News. "When I say we’re going to have a very aggressive first 100 days agenda, we got a lot of things still on the table.
“No Obamacare?” an attendee asked.
“No Obamacare,” Johnson said, reportedly with an eye-roll. “The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.”
Johnson in 2017 supported former President Donald Trump’s repeal and replace plan, casting a decisive vote in passing the GOP's attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which would've stripped health coverage and protections for pre-existing conditions for millions of Americans.
A record number of Americans enrolled this year in the ACA Marketplace, with 21.3 million. This was about double the number of enrollees in 2020. As of May, just under 50 million people had enrolled for health care coverage using the marketplace at some point since its inception in 2014.
Conservative activist Steve Bannon was freed from prison Tuesday and his news conference was interrupted by a comedian mockingly claiming to have served time with him at the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.
At the news conference about his time in prison, a man identifying himself as comedian Robbie Roadsteamer stood to ask Bannon a question.
"I'm wondering when's the next insurrection and can we storm the Burger King after this?" Roadsteamer asked.
"Doesn't he look great now?" he continued. "We were in Danbury the first month together. He looks great. You don't remember me?"
Bannon appeared annoyed but didn't respond.
"When's the next insurrection?" Roadsteamer demanded. "How are we going to do this and stuff, man?"
The comedian then acknowledged the officials asking him to leave.
"If I'm leaving and I'm having a good time, he looks like Yoda with eggs right now," Roadsteamer said. "No political violence, people. This place smells like mothball."
John McEntee, who served as the Director of the TrumpWhite House Presidential Personnel Office, in a 2023 video said the U.S. should have “male only” voting. The video (below) resurfaced Monday, drawing outrage. It went viral, with over one million views in just 24 hours.
McEntee is the co-founder of a dating app for Republicans and conservatives, backed by billionaire Peter Thiel, called Date Right Stuff.
McEntee got his start in the White House as Trump’s “body man,” a personal aide, but was fired by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly in 2018 because he was “under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for serious financial crimes,” CNN reported at the time.
After Kelly’s exit, Trump brought McEntee back into the White House, but as the head of the White House personnel office. He was charged with purging the Executive Branch of anyone who was not deemed sufficiently loyal to Donald Trump.
“So I guess they misunderstood,” McEntee says in the video, one of his many that show him eating in a restaurant. “When we said we wanted mail-only voting, we meant male — M A L E.”
The short clip (below) ends with him smiling. It was originally posted to his Date Right Stuff dating app TikTok account last year, which is filled with dozens if not hundreds of short clips showing McEntee opining on social and political issues. It was reposted Monday to an account on X that bears his name but says it is a supporters’ account.
That video is captioned: “Sorry we want MALE only voting. The 19th might have to go,” although McEntee did not say that specifically in the video.
Monday was the 50th anniversary of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), signed into law by Republican President Gerald Ford. TIME reports that before the law, “banks required women to have a male cosigner—typically a husband or father—on applications for credit cards, loans, and mortgages. It was an archaic policy in an archaic system that was designed to fail women—and for women to fail.”
MSNBC’s Jen Psaki profiled McEntee and his videos in July:
The Atlantic in November of 2021 called McEntee, “The Man Who Made January 6 Possible.”
In May, Rolling Stone reported on the “widespread outrage” over McEntee claiming he gives unhoused people counterfeit cash.
“I always keep this fake Hollywood money in my car, so when a homeless person asks for money then I give them a fake $5 bill,” he said in a TikTok video. “So I feel good about myself, they feel good — and then when they go to use it they get arrested. So I’m actually helping clean up the community, you know, getting them off the streets.”
“The video, posted to the TikTok account of the dating app The Right Stuff, drew widespread outrage, not only because it could be a crime if he was really handing out counterfeit money, but also because it’s the kind of thing you expect to hear in an interview with Tucker Carlson, the depths of 4chan, or in the replies to Elon Musk’s recent posts — not from a dating app,” Rolling Stone added.
“‘Just a joke. Everyone calm down,’ McEntee — who co-founded the app in 2022 after serving as an aide in the Trump administration — wrote in the caption.”
Critics responded to the resurfaced “male only” voting video with outrage.
Political commentator Molly Jong Fast warned: “If trump wins this guy will have a powerful position in the administration.”
People for the American Way CEO and President Svante Myrick, said: “This is, and I’m not joking here, the guy in charge of hiring for the entire Trump administration.”
Podcaster Fred Wellman added, “this week in their effort to get more bro’s they have attacked Puerto Ricans/Latinos, Muslims, and now women on top of the usual transphobia, immigration, and day-to-day racism and bigotry.”
USA Today opinion columnist Michael J. Stern wrote: “Ladies, this is MAGA. They don’t want women to vote. Yes, they want to repeal the 19th Amendment. This is a close ally of Trump’s and may have a place in his administration if he’s elected. If that does not motivate you, I don’t know what will.”
Former President Donald Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden, has broadly come under fire for its racist messaging and has even been compared to a Nazi rally held at the same location almost a century ago.
But more than anything, wrote Jamelle Bouie for The New York Times, it signifies the true "weakness" of Trump as a candidate.
"Did Trump have the crowds he wanted? Yes. But that was the extent of his success that night. His overall message was dark, disturbing and as autocratic as you might expect from a man whose top officials have been warning us about his fascistic tendencies," wrote Bouie.
And furthermore, it wasn't just Trump — the rally played host to a long string of characters, each of whom revealed the "intellectual bankruptcy" of the movement Trump has built.
"There was, of course, the comedian from Texas who let loose a string of offensive jokes aimed at Blacks and Latinos, relishing the permissive atmosphere," wrote Bouie — which has caused an explosion of outrage in the Puerto Rican community and possibly hurt Trump's viability in Pennsylvania. "There was also Stephen Miller, a former Trump White House adviser and close confidant of the ex-president, who ranted and raved against the idea of the United States as a composite nation forged from many different peoples. 'America is for Americans and Americans only,' he said, jabbing the air as he stared out into the cheering crowd."
Absent from the proceedings, however, was any Republican voice even credibly outside the MAGA movement, noted Bouie — no governors like Glenn Youngkin or Ron DeSantis, none of his primary rivals, nobody renowned for political leadership. Instead, all Trump had were "an off-putting combination of D-list celebrities, including Dr. Phil and a visibly worn Hulk Hogan, and Trump sycophants, perhaps most notably Elon Musk."
"Far from showing strength, the Madison Square Garden rally showed that however vicious and virulent its leaders and supporters might be, the MAGA movement is a spent and exhausted force, even if it is not yet defeated," wrote Bouie.
This election is far from settled, Bouie cautioned — he could still squeak out a victory next week.
"But watching a lackluster rally headlined by the rambling patter of a tired candidate struggling to capture the attention of his audience, it is clear that neither he nor his movement has the juice," he concluded. "I know what failure looks like. At Madison Square Garden, I saw it on display."
Vice President Kamala Harris has scored yet another endorsement from a prominent swing-state Republican.
Former Michigan Republican Party executive director Gary Reed this week revealed in a letter to the Lansing City Pulse that he plans to back Harris this year because he believes that former President Donald Trump is too dangerous to return to power.
In his letter, Reed takes aim at Trump and running mate J.D. Vance's deviations from past Republican policies, including support for trade and a strong national defense.
"Rather than promoting trade with the rest of the world, they embrace protectionism and across-the-board tariffs that will make working families pay more for everyday goods," he writes. Trump and Vance thrive on xenophobia and blaming immigrants for all of our problems, rather than coming up with sensible, conservative solutions to serious issues like rising housing costs. Though I may disagree with some of her policy solutions, at least Harris is proposing ideas to fix our problems."
Reed makes clear that he is not all aboard with Harris's agenda, but he thinks that there is no hope of the Republican Party once again being a responsible conservative party with Trump at the helm.
"Trump and his allies have done grave damage to the Republican Party — both in Michigan and nationally," he concluded. "If we ever want our Republican Party back, it has to start with Donald Trump losing on Nov. 5. That’s why I’m voting for Kamala Harris."
RSBN host Nikki Stanzione told her audience that former President Donald Trump was "like a prophet" for people of all faiths, including "Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim."
Before a Tuesday rally in Pennsylvania, Stanzione spoke to a man who said Jesus Christ was a "fighter" like Trump.
"And if God favors us, and if, by God's grace, President Trump is brought back into office, I would say that's a new beginning for us," the man said.
Stanzione said that "friends from all over the world" agreed with the sentiment.
"And we have friends of all faiths, you know, Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim," she asserted. "They're all coming together and saying, this man understands that we need him."
"And he's going to be, he's going almost to be like a prophet for people," she added. "And he's going to allow us to bring God back into the conversation every single day, because we can never lose sight of that, right?"
