Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump attacked rival Vice President Kamala Harris over immigration policy in Austin, Texas, on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024. In this photo, Trump looks on during a campaign event on Dec. 19, 2023 in Waterloo, Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump in Austin, Texas, on Friday attacked Vice President Kamala Harris over her approach to immigration and border security, while echoing several false claims.
The respective GOP and Democratic presidential candidates spent one of the final days leading up to the election in the heavily red Lone Star State — not regarded as a battleground in the presidential race — at dueling campaign events.
Polling continues to depict the two in a deadlock nationally, as Nov. 5 rapidly approaches.
While Trump focused on the border and crime, Harris was slated to speak in Houston on Friday night underlining her support for reproductive rights — a key issue for Democrats — in a state with one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.
“We’re here today in the great state of Texas … which, under Kamala Harris, has been turned into ground zero for the largest border invasion in the history of the world,” Trump said during a campaign stop at an airplane hangar.
Trump baselessly claimed that “over the past four years, this state has become Kamala’s staging ground to import her army of migrant gangs and illegal alien criminals into every state in America.”
The former president also knocked Harris’ actions surrounding border security, calling her approach “cruel,” “vile” and “absolutely heartless.”
He also again incorrectly dubbed Harris “border czar.” President Joe Biden tasked Harris with addressing the “root causes” of migration in Central America in 2021, but he never gave her the title of “border czar.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security heads border security.
Trump also echoed his recent rhetoric, saying the U.S. is “like a garbage can for the rest of the world to dump the people that they don’t want.”
Speaking to reporters in Houston on Friday, Harris said this rhetoric is “just another example of how he really belittles our country.”
“The president of the United States should be someone who elevates discourse and talks about the best of who we are and invests in the best of who we are, not someone like Donald Trump, who’s constantly demeaning and belittling who the American people are,” Harris said.
Trump also reiterated his commitment, if reelected, to launching “the largest deportation program in American history” immediately upon taking the oath of office.
“We have to get all of these criminals, these murderers and drug dealers and everything — we’re getting them out, and we’ll put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail or kick them the hell out of our country, and we’ll get them out,” he said.
Vance in Michigan
During a NewsNation town hall in Michigan on Thursday, Trump’s running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, fielded a series of questions on topics such as immigration, housing and abortion.
One of those questions came from Trump himself.
“How brilliant is Donald J. Trump?” the former president asked Vance over the phone.
Laughing, Vance replied: “Well, first of all, sir, this is supposed to be undecided voters — I would hope that I have your vote, of all people but … sir, of course, you’re very brilliant.”
The Ohio Republican proceeded to talk about his wife, Usha, and Trump speaking with each other.
Trump, who said he watched the CNN town hall with Harris the night prior, then asked Vance: “How brilliant is Kamala?”
“That’s a very tough one, sir,” Vance said. “I’m supposed to say something,” he added, hesitating.
Vance also defended the baseless claims he’s amplified in recent weeks regarding legal Haitian migrants eating cats and dogs in Springfield, Ohio.
“Well, what I said then, and I’ll say now is, you’re hearing a lot of things from your constituents. They’re telling you things, and I think it’s important for me to listen to the people that are coming to me with their problems,” Vance said.
“Now, do I think that the media certainly got distracted on the housing crisis and the health crisis and the crisis in the public schools by focusing on the ‘eating the dogs and the cats’ things? Yeah, I do, and do I wish that I had been better in that moment? Maybe,” he said.
“But it’s also people in my community, people that I represent, are coming to me and saying, this thing is happening. What am I supposed to do? Hang up the phone and tell them they’re a liar because the media doesn’t want me to talk about it?”
The debunked claims surrounding legal Haitian migrants have prompted a series of bomb threats and closures in Springfield.
Campaign signs for former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the respective GOP and Democratic presidential nominees, appear Sunday, Oct. 20, 2024, on Mount Desert Island in Maine. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
Vice President Kamala Harris faced questions about whether sexism is a factor in the presidential race during a Tuesday interview on NBC News, and said she makes no assumptions about whether voters will make their choices based on race or gender.
Polls depict Harris, the Democratic nominee, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate, locked in an extremely close race that has largely been marked by a gender gap in voter preferences. Harris is winning over the votes of women, while Trump is stronger among men, polling is showing.
More than 24.5 million early votes were documented as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the University of Florida Election Lab’s early voting tracker. Among the states with party registration data, Democrats were ahead with about 5.3 million people registered with that party and voting compared to about 4.3 million for Republicans and 2.7 million with no party or another party.
Questioned by NBC News’ Hallie Jackson over whether Harris sees sexism at play in the race, the veep pointed out there are both men and women at her campaign events, “whether it be small events or events with 10,000 people.”
“So, the experience that I am having is one in which it is clear that regardless of someone’s gender, they want to know that their president has a plan to lower costs, that their president has a plan to secure America in the context of our position around the world,” Harris said.
When Jackson asked Harris if she does not see sexism as a factor in the race at all, Harris said: “I don’t think of it that way.”
“My challenge is the challenge of making sure I can talk with and listen to as many voters as possible and earn their vote, and I will never assume that anyone in our country should elect a leader based on their gender or their race,” she said.
Harris, if elected, would become the first woman president, the first Black woman president and the first president of South Asian descent.
Asked whether the country is ready now for a woman and a woman of color to be president, Harris said, “Absolutely.”
“As you know, I started as a prosecutor. I never asked a victim of crime, a witness to crime, ‘Are you a Republican or Democrat?’ The only thing I ever asked them is, ‘Are you okay?’” Harris said.
“And that’s what the American people want to know — regardless of their race, regardless of their gender, their age — they want to know that they have a president who sees them and understands their needs and focuses on their needs, understanding we all deserve to have a president who is focused on solutions and not just fanning the flames of division and hate,” she added.
Asked why she’s been reluctant to talk about the historic nature of her candidacy on the campaign trail, Harris said she’s “clearly a woman” and doesn’t “need to point that out to anyone.”
“The point that most people really care about is, can you do the job and do you have a plan to actually focus on them? That is why I spend the majority of my time listening and then addressing the concerns, the challenges, the dreams, the ambitions and the aspirations of the American people.”
Harris said the country deserves a president who’s “focused on them, as opposed to a Donald Trump who’s constantly focused on himself.”
Biden: ‘We gotta lock him up…politically lock him up’
Meanwhile, speaking at a Democratic campaign office in Concord, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, President Joe Biden sparked controversy when he said “we gotta lock him up” in reference to Trump.
Biden, who drew applause and cheers from the crowd, quickly backtracked, adding: “politically lock him up.”
“Lock him out, that’s what we have to do,” Biden said.
Trump — who was convicted on 34 felony counts in a New York state case earlier this year — has repeatedly made claims of “political persecution.”
In response, Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, said in a statement Wednesday that “Joe Biden just admitted the truth: he and Kamala’s plan all along has been to politically persecute their opponent President Trump because they can’t beat him fair and square.”
Leavitt said the Biden-Harris administration is “the real threat to democracy” while also calling on Harris to “condemn Joe Biden’s disgraceful remark.”
Kelly remarks on Hitler, fascists stir controversy
In an interview with the New York Times, John F. Kelly — the former president’s longest-serving chief of staff and a former four-star Marine general — said Trump “commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too.’”
Asked whether Trump is a “fascist,” Kelly said Trump “certainly falls into the general definition of fascist, for sure,” per the Times.
The Atlantic also published a bombshell story on Tuesday, part of which reports that Trump said: “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.”
In response to the recent reporting, Harris said Wednesday in brief remarks outside the vice president’s residence, before departing for Pennsylvania, that “it is deeply troubling and incredibly dangerous that Donald Trump would invoke Adolf Hitler, the man who is responsible for the deaths of 6 million Jews and hundreds of thousands of Americans.”
“This is a window into who Donald Trump really is, from the people who know him best, from the people who worked with him side-by-side in the Oval Office, and in the Situation Room,” she added.
In a Wednesday statement, the Trump campaign pointed to reporting on the friendship between The Atlantic’s owner and Harris, saying “it’s no surprise that The Atlantic would publish a false smear in the lead up to the election to try to help Kamala Harris’ failing campaign.”
Walz and his family cast their votes
Harris’ running mate, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, cast his ballot Wednesday along with his wife, Gwen, and son, Gus, at the Ramsey County elections office in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to a pool report.
Walz told a woman at the counter that it was 18-year-old Gus’ first time voting and that he’s “pretty excited about it,” per the report.
Vance on schools and immigration
At a campaign event Tuesday in Peoria, Arizona, Trump’s running mate, Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, claimed Harris “has used programs that are meant to help people who are escaping tyranny, and she’s used it to grant amnesty to millions upon millions of people who have no legal right to be in the country, and that has to stop.”
“I mean, in Arizona schools right now, we have got thousands upon thousands of children who can’t even speak the native, the local language in Arizona, sometimes they don’t even speak Spanish, of course, because we’ve got illegal immigrants coming from all over,” he added.
“What does that do to the education of American children when their teachers aren’t teaching them, but they’re focused on kids who don’t have the legal right to be here? And again, nothing against the children, but we can’t have a border policy that ruins the quality of American education.”
However, the Arizona Republic reported that children who have limited proficiency in English in Arizona are taught in separate classrooms from children who speak English, and bilingual education was eliminated in the state in 2000.
Republican vice presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, of Ohio, speaks at a rally at JWF Industries on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance campaigned Saturday in the key battleground of Pennsylvania, where early mail-in voting is already underway as just 25 days remain in the heated 2024 race that will be decided by a handful of states.
Former President Donald Trump’s running mate rallied a crowd of a few hundred at a sprawling riverside manufacturing facility in Johnstown, adhering to the ticket’s main themes of immigration and the economy.
During a question-and-answer session with the press following his prepared remarks, States Newsroom asked Vance if he will commit to the peaceful transfer of power no matter the winner in November.
The coming presidential election is the first since a mob of Trump supporters violently breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, delaying Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election results. More than 1,500 defendants have been charged with crimes associated with the attack on the Capitol, during which 140 police officers were assaulted.
“Yes, of course,” Vance replied. “Look, this is very simple. Yes, there was a riot at the Capitol on January 6, but there was still a peaceful transfer of power in this country, and that is always going to happen.”
Vance, Ohio’s junior U.S. senator, in his speech painted Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, as “a tax-and-spend San Francisco liberal who wants to open our borders and destroy American manufacturing.”
“Are we going to give Kamala Harris a promotion to president of the United States? Hell no. We are going to tell Harris ‘You are fired,’ and we are voting Donald J. Trump to be our next president,” Vance said to cheers.
Vance spoke from a stage inside JWF Industries, a local plant that manufactures transportation, energy and defense equipment and vehicles.
Four military tactical utility vehicles framed the stage, where roughly 80 spectators lined the stage behind and to each side of Vance. A couple hundred people sat below the stage, with several empty rows behind them and an empty section to the left.
New poll numbers
Both campaigns and their surrogates are blanketing seven must-win swing states, as the presidential contest remains incredibly tight.
Trump holds an advantage in Arizona, while Harris has a slight lead in Pennsylvania, according to the latest poll results for the key battleground states released Saturday morning by The New York Times/Philadelphia Inquirer/Siena College.
Vance urged the crowd to check their voter registration status and talk to family and friends about going to the polls.
“It’s the only way that we’re going to make Donald Trump the next president, so let’s get out there and vote, my friends,” he said.
Vance spent the majority of his remarks faulting Harris and President Joe Biden for economic suffering, including inflation and credit card debt delinquency.
A consumer price index report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed inflation is at its lowest since February 2021.
Vance also attacked Harris for participating in “softball interviews,” citing her recent appearances on podcasts, as well as daytime and late-night TV.
Vance took credit for the Trump campaign ad that features a clip from Harris’ interview on “The View” in which she declined to distance herself from decisions of the Biden presidency.
“The problem with a softball interview is that you still have to be able to hit a softball,” Vance said.
In addition to appearances this week on the podcast “Call Her Daddy” and “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” as well as a town hall for Univision, Harris also sat for an interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” on Monday. Trump backed out of his own promised appearance on “60 Minutes.”
Jan. 6 protesters ‘knuckleheads’
Vance implied accusations of voter fraud during his speech, telling the crowd that “you have to make the margins so big in Pennsylvania that it doesn’t matter what shenanigans Democrats pull at the last minute.”
“We will never have the fake media or the Democrats telling the truth. We do have our own voices, and our own networks, our family and friends. That is the people power that is going to make Donald Trump the next president,” Vance said.
During the reporter Q and A, the crowd jeered when a student journalist from a Pittsburgh university asked if Vance condemned the Jan. 6 violence.
Vance defended Trump’s actions on that day, saying the former president encouraged the crowd to protest “peacefully.”
“And the fact that a few knuckleheads went off and did something they shouldn’t do, that’s not on him. That’s on them,” Vance said to cheers.
Vance chafed at journalists asking more than once about Trump’s refusal to accept that Biden won the 2020 race. The former president continues to repeat the falsehood that he won. Trump challenged election results across dozens of lawsuits in multiple states following the 2020 election and lost them all.
“What Kamala Harris and the media are doing is trying to tell us that we should hear more about what happened four years ago than about her failure in governance,” Vance said. “I think that on November the 5th, we are going to reject it.”
Other questions from the press focused on western Pennsylvania, veterans’ benefits and Project 2025, the 900-page “mandate” for the next government, produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Vance said the conservative project has “no relation” to the Trump campaign. An CNN investigation in June found at least 140 several former Trump administration officials were involved in the project.
Vance spoke for 23 minutes and addressed reporter questions for just under the same amount of time.
Fielding audience questions in Reading
Later on Saturday, Vance headed east to Reading for a town hall discussion moderated by former ESPN anchor Sage Steele.
Unlike his event in Johnstown, he didn’t take questions from the media, instead fielding questions from audience members. It wasn’t clear how the audience members and questions were selected.
When one audience member expressed concern about government overreach, Vance said the most important job after president in the next administration would be attorney general. “You need an attorney general who believes in true equal justice under law,” adding “we’ve got a few good candidates” without naming anyone specific.
He encouraged the audience to vote for Republican Dave McCormick for U.S. Senate to ensure an AG nominee would be approved, and called current Attorney General Merrick Garland “one of the most corrupt” attorney generals who should be fired
Vance relayed the story of meeting “a Latino immigrant to this country” and her thoughts on immigration.
“She came here 25 years ago, she paid thousands of dollars in fees and legal expenses just to become an American citizen and she is pissed off at the illegal immigration problem because it’s insulting to her,” he said.
On Wednesday, the Harris campaign announced the launch of a group aimed at encouraging support from Latino men titled “Hombres con Harris,” with events planned in Philadelphia and the Lehigh Valley.
The Harris campaign sent out a statement ahead of Vance’s visit to Reading, criticizing the GOP ticket’s position on abortion and tax policy.
“Pennsylvanians are sick and tired of Trump and Vance’s extremism and divisiveness, which is why they are ready to back the only candidate in this race who is fighting to take our commonwealth forward: Vice President Kamala Harris,” Harris campaign spokesperson Onotse Omoyeni.
An audience member who said she was an immigrant from the Dominican Republic asked Vance what the Trump administration would do to assist small businesses like hers.
Trump, Vance said, would lower business taxes “but only for the businesses that are hiring American workers, we’re not going to reward people for shipping jobs overseas” he added.
Vance told an audience member who asked about competing with China that he wants to protect the U.S.manufacturing sector and reaffirmed the ticket’s position that tariffs are the most effective way to compete with China.
“When Kamala Harris goes against tariffs and she attacks tariffs all the time, what she’s effectively saying is we’re going to let slave laborers build products and then bring it into our country, undercutting the jobs and the industries of America,” Vance said. “We’ve got to cut that crap out.” Vance said, claiming China “pays slaves $3 a day.”
Several times during the event in Reading, Vance encouraged those to go to a website run by the Trump campaign that promotes voting by mail. Trump criticized vote by mail during his previous presidential election, but has appeared to embrace it over the past few months. But on multiple occasions in Pennsylvania this year he’s criticized vote by mail, calling it “corrupt.”
Vance will be in Pennsylvania for several additional campaign events next week. Harris and Trump will both be in Pennsylvania on Monday; she will appear at a rally in Erie, and Trump will campaign in Montgomery County.
The Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) and the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, participate in a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center on Oct. 1, 2024 in New York City. (Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images)
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance squared off Tuesday night in a vice presidential debate that marked the last scheduled in-person meeting for the campaigns as Americans decide the country’s next chapter.
Meeting for the first time, Walz and Vance engaged in a policy-heavy, nearly two-hour back-and-forth hosted by CBS News at its studios in New York City. The debate was moderated by Norah O’Donnell, host of the “CBS Evening News,” and Margaret Brennan, who anchors the network’s Sunday political show “Face the Nation.”
The vice presidential candidates emphasized their modest upbringings and laid out their visions to lower high living costs, address charged issues like reproductive rights, immigration and gun violence, and navigate a quickly worsening conflict in the Middle East.
And, with the presidential contest marking the first since the violent aftermath of the 2020 election, and Trump’s continued false claims that he won, the moderators pressed the men on whether voters would see a peaceful transfer of power, no matter the winner. Vance would not provide a direct answer whether he would have certified the 2020 vote.
Walz is a second-term governor who previously served six terms in the U.S. House. Prior to his election, Walz worked as a public school teacher and football coach while also enlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard for 24 years.
Vance served in the U.S. Marines for four years before earning his Yale law degree and becoming a venture capitalist and bestselling memoirist. He was first elected to public office in late 2022 to serve as Ohio’s junior U.S. senator.
The mostly amicable debate, with some moments of tension, was a noticeable departure from the bitter polarization on display daily during the presidential campaign. Walz and Vance shook hands and lingered onstage afterward chatting and introducing each other to their wives.
The presidential nominees, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, met on the debate stage last month in a more acrimonious exchange during which the former president falsely claimed immigrants were eating pets in Ohio and Harris ripped into him for his remarks on race and abortion.
Trump has refused to debate again. Following the Vance-Walz exchange, the Harris campaign renewed its offer for another presidential meetup offered by CNN in Atlanta later this month.
Growing Middle East conflict
Answering the first question from the moderators Tuesday night, Walz and Vance sparred over which administration, if elected, would best quell signs of a widening war in the Middle East.
Tensions in the region escalated earlier Tuesday when Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel, according to the Pentagon.
Walz accused Trump of being “fickle” on foreign policy and said the world is worse off since Trump pulled the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal. Walz argued for “steady leadership.”
“You saw it experienced today where, along with our Israeli partners and our coalition, [we were] able to stop the incoming attack,” Walz said.
“It’s clear, and the world saw it on that debate stage a few weeks ago, a nearly 80-year-old Donald Trump talking about crowd sizes is not what we need in this moment,” the governor continued.
Vance maintained that Trump headed off heated global conflict by invoking fear.
“We have to remember that as much as Governor Waltz just accused Donald Trump of being an agent of chaos, Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world, and he did it by establishing effective deterrence,” Vance said. “People were afraid of stepping out of line.”
The barrage in the Middle East followed Israel’s ground incursion into Southern Lebanon and its recent assassination in Beirut of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iranian proxy militant group Hezbollah.
While Israel intercepted the majority of the rockets Tuesday, U.S. Navy destroyers in the Middle East fired roughly a dozen interceptors at incoming Iranian missiles, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder said.
The Biden administration promised “severe consequences,” though it has not provided details. Harris said late Tuesday that Iran poses a “destabilizing, dangerous force in the Middle East” and her commitment to Israel is “unwavering.”
Despite a visit to Washington less than a week ago from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the CBS moderators did not ask about the ongoing war in Ukraine, and neither candidate brought up the costly and ongoing fight against Russia’s continued invasion.
2020 election
Vance and Walz sparred over how Trump handled his loss in the 2020 presidential election and his actions leading up to Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol following a rally that Trump hosted.
Walz said while he and Vance found some areas of common ground at other points during the debate, the two were “miles apart” on Trump’s actions following the 2020 election.
“This was a threat to our democracy in a way that we had not seen, and it manifested itself because of Donald Trump’s inability to say – he is still saying he didn’t lose the election,” Walz said.
Vance didn’t directly answer whether he would have certified the electoral count for President Joe Biden had he been a member of Congress at the time, to Walz’s dismay.
“I’m pretty shocked by this,” Walz said. “He lost the election. This is not a debate.”
Walz said he was concerned that Vance wouldn’t follow the example set by former Vice President Mike Pence, who refused to go along with a scheme to recognize fake slates of electors and deny Biden the presidency.
Vance tried to pivot to Harris’ actions following the COVID-19 pandemic and whether she “censored Americans from speaking their mind” before saying that both he and Trump “think that there were problems in 2020.”
There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud during the last presidential election, during which Trump lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College.
Walz also criticized Trump and Vance for using the same narrative ahead of this November’s elections, saying they were “already laying the groundwork for people not accepting” the results should Trump lose.
Taxes and tariffs
Both Harris and Trump have released economic plans that would add trillions to the national deficit — though analysis after analysis shows Trump’s proposals outpacing Harris’ by at least a few trillion.
Harris and Walz are running on an “opportunity economy” theme that would permanently expand the Child Tax Credit, including giving $6,000 to new parents, and provide tax credits and deductions to first-time homebuyers and entrepreneurs.
Harris, following Biden’s earlier budget proposal, has said she would impose a minimum tax on high-wealth individuals, but vowed steeper levies on long-term capital gains.
Trump has promised to fund the Treasury’s coffers with money raised by taxing imported goods. Largely he wants to extend his signature 2017 tax law and permanently lower the corporate tax rate.
When asked by the moderators how the candidates could accomplish those goals without ballooning the national debt, both Vance and Walz sidestepped directly answering the question. Rather they touted Trump and Biden administration policies and then went on the attack.
“Donald Trump made a promise, and I’ll give you this: He kept it. He took folks to Mar-a-Lago [and] said, ‘You’re rich as hell. I’m gonna give you a tax cut,’” Walz said, adding that Trump’s tariff plan would be “destabilizing” for the economy.
Economists warn that Trump’s plan to slap tariffs on imports across the board — as high as 60% on Chinese imports and 100% to 200% on cars and John Deere tractors manufactured in Mexico — could cause consumer prices to increase and invite retaliation.
But Vance said he wanted to “defend my running mate” on the issue.
“We’re going to be taking in a lot of money by penalizing companies for shipping jobs overseas and penalizing countries who employ slave laborers and then ship their products back into our country and undercut the wages of American workers. It’s the heart of the Donald Trump economic plan,” the senator said.
High costs and housing
Both candidates spent significant time addressing housing and child care costs.
Walz touted Harris’ “bold forward plan” that calls for construction of 3 million new homes and “down payment assistance on the front end to get you in a house.”
“A house is much more than just an asset to be traded somewhere. It’s foundational to where you’re at,” Walz said.
Vance said some of Walz’s ideas on housing were “halfway decent.”
One of the central pillars of Trump and Vance’s housing plans is to turn over federal lands to private hands for development.
“We have a lot of federal lands that aren’t being used for anything. They’re not being used for national parks. They’re not being used, and they could be places where we build a lot of housing,” Vance said.
On child care, Walz pledged a paid federal family and medical leave mandate as a priority for the Harris campaign, and advocated a parallel workforce development program for the care professions.
“We have to make it easier for folks to be able to get into that business, and then to make sure that folks are able to pay for that,” Walz said.
The dual goals, he said, “will enhance our workforce, enhance our families, and make it easier to have the children that you want.”
Vance said he sees an opportunity for a “bipartisan solution” to the high cost of child care, though he stopped short of agreeing with a federal paid leave law.
Instead he proposed expanding the potential recipients for federal child care grants.
“These programs only go to one kind of child care model. Let’s say you’d like your church maybe to help you out with child care. Maybe you live in a rural area or an urban area, and you’d like to get together with families in your neighborhood to provide child care and the way that makes the most sense. You don’t get access to any of these federal monies,” Vance said.
Immigration, again
Vance also repeatedly connected the housing shortage and high costs to immigration — the central issue for Trump’s campaign and a common answer from him for several of the nation’s woes.
The Ohio senator said housing is “totally unaffordable because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants to compete with Americans for scarce homes.”
“The people that I’m most worried about in Springfield, Ohio, are the American citizens who have had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’ open border,” Vance said, referring to the town where he and Trump falsely claimed over and over that Haitian migrants were stealing and eating pets.
Debate moderator Brennan pressed Vance on his claim: “Senator on that point, I’d like for you to clarify. There are many contributing factors to high housing costs. What evidence do you have that migrants are part of this problem?”
Vance said he would share on social media following the debate a Federal Reserve study that supported his claim.
Reproductive rights
Access to abortion and fertility treatments was one of the more contentious areas of disagreement, though neither candidate trod new ground for their party.
Vance maintained the Trump stance that abortion laws should be set by voters or state lawmakers, while Walz said women and their doctors are best suited to make those decisions.
Vance told a story about a woman he grew up with having an abortion, then telling him a few years ago that “she felt like if she hadn’t had that abortion, that it would have destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship.”
“And I think that what I take from that, as a Republican who proudly wants to protect innocent life in this country, who proudly wants to protect the vulnerable, is that my party, we’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue, where they frankly, just don’t trust us,” Vance said. “And I think that’s one of the things that Donald Trump, and I are endeavoring to do.”
Walz rejected Vance’s position that state lawmakers should determine women’s access to the full slate of reproductive decisions, including fertility treatments.
Walz referenced some of the stories women have told in the last two years about being denied medical care for miscarriages or other dangerous pregnancy complications because of vaguely written state laws that banned or significantly restricted access to abortion.
“This is a very simple proposition: These are women’s decisions to make about their health care,” Walz said, later adding that people should “just mind their own business on this.”
Gun violence
The two vice presidential candidates had one of the more genuine exchanges of the debate after the moderators asked them about solutions for gun violence.
Vance conceded that he and Walz both want to reduce the number of people killed by guns every year, but said the solution should center around addressing illegal guns, including those used in drug trafficking, and through changing how schools are designed.
“Unfortunately, I think that we have to increase security in our schools. We have to make the doors lock better. We have to make the door stronger. We’ve got to make the windows stronger,” Vance said. “And of course, we’ve got to increase school resource officers, because the idea that we can magically wave a wand and take guns out of the hands of bad guys, it just doesn’t fit with recent experience.”
Walz said school shootings are every parent’s “worst nightmare” before telling a story about how his son witnessed a shooting at a community center while playing volleyball.
“Those things don’t leave you,” Walz said, before talking about meeting with parents of the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, when he was a member of Congress.
“We understand that the Second Amendment is there, but our first responsibility is to our kids to figure this out,” Walz said. “In Minnesota, we’ve enacted enhanced red flag laws, enhanced background checks.”
Walz said he absolutely believes Vance hates it when children die from gun violence, but added that’s “not far enough when we know they’re things that work.”
“No one’s trying to scaremonger and say, ‘We’re taking your guns,” Walz said. “But I ask all of you out there, ‘Do you want your schools hardened to look like a fort?’ … when we know there’s countries around the world that their children aren’t practicing these types of drills.”
Vance expressed sympathy that Walz’s son had witnessed a shooting and thanked him for bringing up Finland as an example of a country with a high rate of gun ownership that doesn’t have school shootings.
“I do think it illustrates some of the, frankly, weird differences between our own country’s gun violence problem and Finland,” Vance said, before mentioning higher rates of substance abuse and mental health issues within the United States.
“I don’t think it’s the whole reason why we have such a bad gun violence problem, but I do think it’s a big piece of it,” Vance said.
Hurricane Helene response, climate change
The two candidates expressed dismay about the destruction stemming from Hurricane Helene in states in the Southeast, but disagreed about how best to address climate change.
Vance said “a lot of people are justifiably worried about all these crazy weather patterns,” before criticizing how Democrats have drafted climate change laws.
“This idea that carbon emissions drive all the climate change; well let’s just say that’s true, just for the sake of arguments,” Vance said. “Well, if you believe that, what would you want to do? The answer is that you’d want to restore as much American manufacturing as possible, and you’d want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America, because we’re the cleanest economy in the entire world.”
Walz said that Biden and Harris have worked with Congress to enact legislation addressing climate change that also created jobs.
“We are producing more natural gas and more oil at any time than we ever have. We’re also producing more clean energy,” Walz said. “Reducing our impact is absolutely critical, but this is not a false choice. You can do that at the same time you’re creating the jobs that we’re seeing all across the country.”
Walz also said that farmers in Minnesota know climate change is real because some years they experience significant drought and other years they’re inundated with too much rain for their crops to handle.
“They’ve seen 500-year droughts, 500-year floods back-to-back,” Walz said. “But what they’re doing is adapting, and this has allowed them to tell me, ‘Look, I harvest corn, I harvest soybeans, and I harvest wind.’”
Republican vice presidential candidate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), and Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, greet each other ahead of a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center on October 1, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance faced off Tuesday in their first and only vice presidential debate.
But both brought up claims that were nothing new.
Here’s a look at some of those claims and States Newsroom’s assessment of the facts:
CLAIM: Walz said Vance called his running mate, former President Donald Trump, unfit for the office of the presidency.
THE FACTS: True. Vance said it in a New York Times op-ed in 2016. The Washington Post reported that as recently as 2020 Vance criticized the Trump administration’s record, saying Trump “thoroughly failed to deliver.”
Nevertheless, from the earliest stages of his U.S. Senate campaign in 2022, Vance described and defended his change of heart. At a campaign event in January that year, he said, “I’m not gonna hide from the fact that I did not see Trump’s promise in the beginning but you know, he delivered,” Vance said. “He delivered, and he cared about people. And I think that’s important. It’s important (to) change your mind.”
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CLAIM: Vance argued schools, hospitals and housing in Springfield, Ohio, are overwhelmed or unaffordable “because we brought in millions of illegal immigrants.” He added American citizens in Springfield have “had their lives destroyed by Kamala Harris’s open border.”
THE FACTS: Vance and Trump have been the driving force behind several smears of the Haitian community in Springfield. Although the population influx has strained resources, state and local officials – some of them Republicans – have rejected Vance’s false characterization of the Haitian people living there.
Those migrants are primarily in the country legally under a program called Temporary Protected Status. It offers work authorization for people who would face danger in their home countries, and has been in place since 1990.
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CLAIM: In response to moderator Norah O’Donnell asking about Donald Trump’s claim that Walz supports abortions “in the ninth month,” Walz said “In Minnesota, what we did was restore Roe v. Wade.”
THE FACTS: Minnesota Democrats, with Walz’s support, passed a bill in 2023 enshrining Minnesota’s existing abortion protections into law after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the nationwide right the year before. Abortion had already been protected under a 1995 state Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing women the right to an abortion.
CLAIM: Vance argued he and Trump would pursue “pro-family” policies and make fertility treatment more accessible. He also stated he never favored a national abortion ban, but rather described his position as “setting some minimum national standard.”
THE FACTS: Vance has repeatedly insisted he supports access to in vitro fertilization treatment, but he voted against a Senate measure to establish protections for it in June and skipped the vote when it came up again in September.
Vance’s framing of his position – minimum standards versus a ban – is little more than semantics. During his 2022 Senate campaign, he expressed support for a bill cutting off access to abortion anywhere in the country after 15 weeks.
“You can have some minimum national standards, which is my view,” he said, “while allowing the states to make up their minds. California is going to have a different view than Ohio, that’s totally fine.”
Under that proposal states would be able to set abortion policies more restrictive than that 15-week cut off.
Vance was unwilling in that 2022 campaign to embrace the typical exceptions of rape, incest or the life of the mother.
“An incest exception looks different at three weeks of pregnancy versus 39 weeks of pregnancy,” he said.
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CLAIM: On paid family leave, Walz said “We implemented it in Minnesota and we see growth.”
THE FACTS: In 2023, Walz signed Minnesota’s family and medical leave bill into law. The bill creates a state-run insurance program guaranteeing up to 20 weeks paid time off per year to deal with family or medical issues. The program is funded, in part, by a new tax on employers and employees.
However the law will not take force until 2026, and certain details — including the final payroll rate — are still being ironed out by state regulators. The effect on Minnesota’s economy remains unknown, although many studies have shown that paid leave requirements in other states and countries increase womens’ workforce participation and boost economic growth.
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CLAIM: Vance claimed illegal immigration is driving up the cost of housing and alluded to a Federal Reserve study that drew a link between the two.
THE FACTS: Vance posed the idea to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell himself in July. Powell expressed skepticism at the time, noting in the long run, immigration likely has a neutral impact on inflation, but he acknowledged there may be regional impacts on housing. A pair of Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas studies released that month bolster Powell’s argument. One suggested immigrants boosted the U.S. economy without contributing to inflation; the other noted immigrants “could put upward pressure on rents and house prices, particularly in the short run before new supply can be built.”
There doesn’t appear to be a Federal Reserve study drawing a bright line between immigration in housing prices. If anything, University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers argued last May that the relationship between those variables is the opposite of what Vance suggested.
CLAIM: Walz was asked to explain the discrepancy between his account of being in Hong Kong during the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and recent reporting showing he wasn’t there until months later.
THE FACTS: Walz acknowledged he was wrong: “I have not been perfect, and I have been a knucklehead at times…. All I said on this was, I got there that summer and misspoke on this. That is what I have said. So, I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests, went in and from that I learned a lot of what needed to be in governance.”
Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., on Wednesday posted to X, and later deleted, a comment that invoked racist stereotypes about Haitians. In this photo, Higgins speaks during a press conference on the National Defense Authorization Act with members of the House Freedom Caucus on July 14, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Steven Horsford of Nevada took to the U.S. House floor Wednesday night to condemn an “overtly racist” tweet against Haitians and Haitian Americans by Louisiana Republican U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins.
Hours before members were scheduled to depart for a recess through the November elections, Higgins posted to X a comment that invoked racist stereotypes about Haitians and said Haitians in the United States should leave the country before Jan. 20, the date the next president will be inaugurated.
Higgins’ post included a link to an Associated Press story about a nonprofit representing Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, that has brought charges against former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, whose campaign for president and vice president has centered on criticism of immigration.
“These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters… but damned if they don’t feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP,” Higgins wrote. “All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.”
Haitians are generally not among the immigrants living in the country illegally, as they have been granted Temporary Protected Status due to conditions in their home country. Trump and Vance have amplified disproven rumors about the Haitian community in Springfield, leading to hoax bomb threats against schools, government buildings and local leaders.
After a brief period of confusion about the proper process to introduce a censure resolution, Horsford — surrounded by members of the Congressional Black Caucus and other Democrats — spoke on the House floor to condemn the tweet and called for a vote to censure Higgins when the House returns from recess.
“Rep. Higgins used his official account on X to publicly slander, insult and demean all Haitians and Haitian Americans in an overtly racist post,” Horsford said.
Rep. Troy Carter, the lone Democrat and only Black member of Louisiana’s congressional delegation, blasted Higgins’ post in a written statement.
“I am appalled by the racist and reprehensible remarks made by Rep. Clay Higgins about the people of Haiti,” he wrote. “We all owe each other better than this, but as elected officials we should hold ourselves to an even higher standard. We have a solemn responsibility to represent and respect all races of people. Hate-filled rhetoric like this is not just offensive — it is dangerous. It incites division, perpetuates harmful stereotypes, and undermines the core values of our democracy.”
Johnson, Scalise defend Higgins
Two of Higgins’ fellow Louisiana Republicans in House leadership defended him Wednesday.
Talking to reporters, House Speaker Mike Johnson said he’d spoken to Higgins, who told the speaker he regretted the language of the tweet.
Higgins “was approached on the floor by colleagues who said that was offensive,” Johnson. “He said he went to the back and he prayed about it, and he regretted it, and he pulled the post down. That’s what you want the gentleman to do. I’m sure he probably regrets the language he used. But, you know, we move forward. We believe in redemption around here.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana briefly defended Higgins on the floor before the chamber took a short recess.
Scalise noted the post had been taken down and suggested censure was inappropriate because he could find examples of Democratic members making divisive comments.
“If we want to go through every comment, tweet from the other side, we’ll be happy to do it and you’ll be appalled,” Scalise said.
Faith leaders with the Dane Sanctuary Coalition spoke out against anti-immigrant rhetoric at the Midvale Community Lutheran Church Thursday | Wisconsin Examiner photo
Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance traveled to western Wisconsin this week to double down on his spurious attacks on immigrants, promising to “kick these illegal aliens out.”
It was the second time in two weeks that Republicans have campaigned in the rural, western part of the state on their “mass deportation” platform.
The region where Vance and U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden made their recent stands against immigrants is heavily dependent on immigrant labor. Immigrants make up a large majority of the workforce on area dairy farms and they do most of the heavy lifting for other key businesses in the area including Ashley Furniture — the world’s largest furniture manufacturer — and the Pilgrim’s poultry processing plant.
Western Wisconsin has experienced a big recent demographic shift with an influx of Latin American immigrants. And those newcomers have revitalized small towns across the region that were in decline because young people are moving away, leaving an aging white population. Mexican restaurants, grocery stores and other small businesses have given new life to fading Main streets and young families have filled schools that were on the brink of closure from low enrollment.
It’s hard to keep up with all the falsehoods politicians are spreading about immigrants in this campaign season. Among the doozies Vance dropped during his visit to Eau Claire was his baseless assertion that immigrants caused two area hospitals to close recently and that mass deportation will “make the business of rural health care much more affordable.”
The closure of those rural hospitals was agonizing for the communities that struggled to hold on to them. An aging patient population, low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, trouble finding and keeping staff, and a larger harsh landscape for nonprofit hospitals were among the factors that caused the hospitals to close. But neither the legislators who worked on the issues nor hospital management pointed to immigrants as the problem. There’s good reason for that.
Across the country, immigrants use the U.S. medical system far less than people born in the U.S. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that: “Recent immigrants were responsible for only about 1% of public medical expenditures even though they constituted 5% of the population,” and “immigrants’ medical costs averaged about 14% to 20% less than those who were US born.”
As Alison Pfau, bilingual regional dairy educator for the University of Wisconsin Extension, has seen that phenomenon up close. She explained during a panel I participated in this week that given a choice between seeking medical care and staying on the job, “immigrant workers will choose to keep working every time, unless it’s a dire emergency.”
Meanwhile, national research shows that immigrants — including those without legal status — pay more into government health care programs through tax withholdings than they use in benefits. In 2022, undocumented immigrants paid almost $100 billion in taxes, about a third of which went to Medicare and Social Security — programs they will never be able to use —Wisconsin Watch reports. Without them, U.S. safety net programs would take a big hit.
Other misleading campaign talking points mix up immigrants who are in the U.S. without legal authorization, like most Wisconsin dairy workers, with refugees and asylum seekers like the atrociously slandered Haitian refugees Vance and Trump have been falsely accusing of eating pets in Springfield, Ohio — who are here under U.S. protection and therefore not, contrary to campaign rhetoric, eligible to be deported.
Antonio De Loera-Brust, a United Farm Workers spokesman, told Wisconsin Watch that the point of anti-immigrant rhetoric is not a real policy plan. After all, deporting millions of workers would be logistically impossible, in addition to depriving U.S. agriculture of a huge portion of its labor force. Employers who support Trump despite his threats, De Loera-Brust theorized, aren’t worried about losing their workers — they see the rhetoric as a way to frighten farmworkers so they don’t demand their rights. “I don’t think you need to psychoanalyze it that much further beyond, ‘This is in their economic interest,’” he told Wisconsin Watch.
He has a point. There is nothing coherent or logical about the barrage of hateful rhetoric about immigrants. Fear itself seems to be the point. And a system in which a disempowered workforce lives in fear is a system that is bound to be rife with exploitation.
Still, some farmers do object to the nasty characterization of immigrants. They point out that there is no legal visa for year-round farm work, even though the U.S. has depended on these workers to do jobs Americans don’t want to do for decades now. They want a visa program that recognizes that work and gives the people who’ve been here a long time a path to citizenship.
Perhaps the most important thing to understand about all the political flame-throwing over communities supposedly afflicted by immigrants is that many of the people who live in those communities don’t agree that they are afflicted at all.
I found this out when I interviewed local leaders in Whitewater, Wisconsin, which was the focus of a lot of misleading political spin about a supposed sudden “flood” of Nicaraguan asylum seekers causing a crime wave. It turned out that story was false.
Eau Claire, like Whitewater, has been welcoming asylum seekers from other countries for years, and, as in Whitewater, residents there say the experience has enriched their community.
Matt Kendziera, executive director of Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice, lived in Eau Claire for 29 years before moving to Madison last year. He said he never heard divisive talk about the arrival of people from other countries in the community until Vance visited this week to talk about the scourge of immigration. “Eau Claire has been a wonderful and welcoming community to the refugees who are there,” he told me. Many former refugees have become community leaders, he added, running for city council and becoming active in the local schools.
I spoke to Kendziera Thursday during a news conference at the Midvale Lutheran Community Church in Madison, where faith leaders who are part of the Dane Sanctuary Coalition were speaking out against “the growing number of vicious, racist lies, hatred, bomb threats, persecution and death threats against asylum seekers,” according to a coalition press release.
“This church has had the privilege of accompanying asylum seekers,” said Midvale Lutheran’s co-pastor, Rev. Katie Baardseth. Families from Cameroon, Ukraine and Colombia fleeing persecution and violence had found “peace and success in Madison,” she said. The experience of welcoming those families had benefited the congregation, she added.
Rabbi Jon Prosnit of Temple Beth El talked about Jews’ historical experience: “We’ve been targeted, we’ve been scapegoated. … We are always on guard lest our own hearts harden,” he said, adding that welcoming and protecting outsiders is “the most repeated injunction in the entire Torah.”
Ibrahim Saeed, president of the Islamic Center of Madison, described the history of the Muslim people as a history of persecution and exile but also of being welcomed by strangers. God made humanity, he said, “so you can get to know each other, not to despise each other.”
Without a doubt, there’s a demographic shift going on in Wisconsin, especially in rural areas. But community leaders, employers and regular citizens in Wisconsin communities like Whitewater, Eau Claire and Arcadia have embraced the change and the energy and economic and cultural benefits that come with it.
It’s inspiring to talk to people who have opened their hearts, welcoming newcomers and feeling their own lives and communities enriched by the experience.
Contrary to all the toxic rhetoric, immigration is a net plus for our country, and especially for the white, rural areas the Trump/Vance campaign is targeting in Wisconsin. Beneath the noise of the political campaign, a lot of people in those communities can tell you about it.
The South Portico of the White House is seen Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
WASHINGTON — The presidential campaigns are rushing ahead this week without missing a beat, despite numerous law enforcement agencies investigating a possible assassination attempt Sunday on Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, was looking to pick up an endorsement from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters during a private sit-down interview with the organization on Monday before heading to several campaign stops later this week.
Trump, the GOP nominee, whose campaign is fundraising off a gunman putting an AK-47 through the fence at his Florida golf course before being confronted by the Secret Service, is expected to continue his regular schedule.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, will be on the campaign trail as well, after making headlines this weekend when he seemingly admitted making up a story about Haitian immigrants in Ohio before doubling down on the false claim.
“If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance said during a combative interview with Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Vance then insisted that he’s repeating concerns from his constituents, despite public officials and police officers in Ohio saying there’s no evidence of immigrants eating geese or cats.
“I say that we’re creating a story, meaning we’re creating the American media focusing on it,” Vance added.
Vance’s comments and repeated criticism of Harris came shortly after her campaign released a list of 17 Reagan administration officials endorsing her bid for the Oval Office.
“Our votes in this election are less about supporting the Democratic Party and more about our resounding support for democracy,” they wrote. “It’s our hope that this letter will signal to other Republicans and former Republicans that supporting the Democratic ticket this year is the only path forward toward an America that is strong and viable for our children and grandchildren for years to come.”
Ken Adelman, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and U.S. arms control director; Carol Adelman, USAID assistant administrator; Robert Thompson, senior staff economist at the Council of Economic Advisers; Gahl Burt, White House social secretary; B. Jay Cooper, deputy assistant to the president; Kathleen Shanahan, a staff assistant at the National Security Council; and Pete Souza, official White House photographer were among those from the Reagan administration to publicly voice their support for Harris.
NABJ chat, stops in swing states
Tuesday’s campaign schedule shows a packed day of public events for all the major campaign names.
Harris is expected to attend a fireside chat with the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, months after Trump’s on-stage panel interview with three NABJ journalists stirred up controversy within the organization and made headlines for Trump’s responses to their questions.
Trump will host a town hall in Flint, Michigan moderated by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former press secretary, during the evening. Trump also abruptly announced an XSpaces event for Monday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on the social media platform.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, running mate to Harris, is expected to attend events in Macon and Atlanta, Georgia. He’ll then head to Asheville, North Carolina to give a stump speech.
Vance is expected to speak at a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Also on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Denise Page Hood will hear arguments on whether Robert F. Kennedy’s Jr.’s name should be removed from Michigan’s ballot.
“Before a court may issue a temporary restraining order, it should be assured that the movant has produced compelling evidence of irreparable and imminent injury and that the movant has exhausted reasonable efforts to give the adverse party notice,” Hood wrote.
Kennedy, who suspended his bid for the Oval Office last month, had requested an immediate ruling, which the judge denied.
The Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former President Donald Trump and the Republican vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), attend the annual 9/11 Commemoration Ceremony at the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum on Sept. 11, 2024, in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris honored victims on the 23rd anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, when four hijacked commercial airliners crashed into New York City’s Twin Towers, a Pennsylvania field and the Pentagon, shocking the world and precipitating years of U.S. war targeting extremists.
Biden and Harris honored the nearly 2,977 lives lost that day visiting all three sites Wednesday. In New York City they sat among leaders past and present, including former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, during the annual reading of the names of those who died when the Twin Towers collapsed.
Harris and Trump shook hands at the ceremony just hours after their contentious presidential debate Tuesday night, during which they blamed each other for the deadly 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan two decades after the United States invaded in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks.
Biden and Harris then traveled to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to lay a wreath at a memorial near the field where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed.
They also brought pizza and beer to local volunteer firefighters.
Both walked to a sandstone boulder in the field that marks the point of impact, according to reporters traveling with the president and vice president.
Trump also visited the memorial and crash site in Shanksville on Wednesday, according to press who were present.
Biden and Harris closed the day by laying a wreath at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where 184 people were killed when a hijacked jet targeted the hub of U.S. defense operations.
“On this day 23 years ago, terrorists believed they could break our will and bring us to our knees. They were wrong. They will always be wrong,” Biden said in a statement. “In the darkest of hours, we found light. And in the face of fear, we came together — to defend our country, and to help one another. That is why terrorists targeted us in the first place: our freedom, our democracy, our unity.”
“They failed. But we must remain vigilant. Today, our longest war is finally over. But our commitment to preventing another attack on our people never will be,” he continued.
Both the president and Harris hailed the Obama administration’s 2011 U.S. killing of Osama bin Laden, a known terrorist who antagonized the U.S. for years before directing his al-Qaida network to carry out the 9/11 attacks.
“[A]nd two years ago, President Biden ordered an operation that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s deputy,” Harris said in a statement. “We remain vigilant against any terrorist threat directed at the United States or the American people and we continue to disrupt terrorist networks wherever we find them.”
Tributes from Congress
Congressional leaders paid tribute to the victims as well Wednesday.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York attended the morning ceremony at Ground Zero in Manhattan.
“Today and every day, we remember and honor the sacrifice, resiliency, and the bravery of New Yorkers, our first responders, the families of those who were taken from us, and Americans across the country,” Schumer posted on X Wednesday. “We will #NeverForget the souls we lost on 9/11 and in the years since.”
In remarks on the Senate floor, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell honored the 9/11 victims and also criticized the Biden administration for the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He also attacked Harris for comments she made on the debate stage Tuesday.
“The Biden-Harris Administration pretends the war on terrorism is over,” the Kentucky Republican said. “The vice president, herself, claimed last night that ‘there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone [for] the first time this century.’”
“This, of course, would be news to the U.S. service members who conducted operations against ISIS in Iraq last week, and to the sailors intercepting Houthi rockets in the Red Sea, and to the families of service members killed and injured in the attack on Tower 22 near Jordan’s border with Syria earlier this year,” McConnell said, referencing Iran-backed militant attacks on shipping vessels and a U.S. Air Force and Army base in the northernmost tip of Jordan.
Both U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries marked the anniversary by laying a wreath at the 9/11 memorial in the U.S. Capitol that honors the passengers and crew of Flight 93.
“The 9/11 terrorists sought to destroy America, but they were no match for the indomitable American spirit. On this solemn day, we honor the lives of those lost and remember the strength and courage of our first responders who ran towards danger, not from it. We will never forget their extraordinary sacrifice,” Johnson of Louisiana said in a statement.
Jeffries, a New York Democrat, called attention to emergency workers who developed chronic health issues following their duties at the Manhattan crash site.
“Hundreds of first responders selflessly and bravely answered the call and ran towards danger. They risked their own safety to rescue whoever they could find. Due to the toxic exposures they endured at Ground Zero, many went on to contract severe or terminal long-term illnesses,” Jeffries said in a statement, spotlighting the more than two dozen New York firefighters who died this year from their 9/11-related diseases.
“Our commitment to our courageous first responders is ironclad and must endure. House Democrats will always stand up for the heroes who gave everything on that tragic day,” Jeffries said, blasting Republicans who in 2019 stalled, and some who voted against, a government medical fund for the responders. “We will never forget their sacrifice.”
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