Former President Barack Obama and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at a rally in Madison on the first day of early voting. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
Former President Barack Obama, on the first day of early voting in Wisconsin, encouraged people in one of Wisconsin’s major liberal strongholds for Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Dane County is one of two major liberal hubs in Wisconsin, a critical state that could swing the presidential election. The importance of the area this year has been highlighted by recent visits from Harris herself last month, and from former President Donald Trump, who visited Dane County earlier this month following Wisconsin Republicans’ advice to work to eat into Democratic margins in the state’s fastest growing county.
“If you haven’t voted yet, I won’t be offended if you just walk out right now,” Obama said to an energetic crowd at Alliant Energy Center. “Go vote.”
Gov. Tony Evers, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz also spoke at the rally.
Throughout his speech, which lasted about 40 minutes, Obama made the case that electing Harris and Walz would help improve the lives of Americans, while also criticizing former President Donald Trump.
“We know this election is going to be tight, it’s going to be tight because a lot of Americans are still struggling,” Obama said. Harris, he said, “knows what it’s like to scrap and to work hard — to see her mom worry about the bills, so does Tim. So if you elect them, they will be focused on your problems.”
“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz don’t have concepts of a plan,” Obama said, referencing Trump’s comment during the September debate about his vague ideas for replacing the Affordable Care Act. “They have an actual plan to make your life better.”
Obama said the plan would include cracking down on corporations for price gouging, making it more affordable to build or buy a home, limiting out of pocket health care costs and cutting taxes for middle-class Americans.
Obama highlighted the Trump administration’s decision to not follow the pandemic playbook that his own administration left during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If somebody tells you it does not make a difference whether you elect someone who’s competent, somebody who cares about you, somebody who listens to experts and listens to ordinary people and knows what their lives are like and what they’re going to do, it makes a difference,” Obama said.
The election is about more than policy, he added, saying that it’s also about “values.” To Trump and his “cronies” freedom means getting away with whatever they want, he said. “We believe true freedom means we get to make decisions about our own life.”
Former President Barack Obama. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
“Do not boo! Vote,” Obama told the crowd. “They can’t hear you boo. They can hear you vote.”
Walz had a similar theme in criticizing Trump ahead of Obama.
“There’s something, not just nuts, but cruel about a billionaire using people’s livelihood as a political prop,” Walz said about Trump’s recent shift working at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. “His agenda lets corporations not pay people for overtime and diminishes those very people that he was cosplaying as… That restaurant wasn’t even open. It was a stunt… That five minutes he stood next to the deep fryer I’ll guarantee you that’s the hardest that guy’s ever worked.”
Walz also took some jabs at Elon Musk, a tech billionaire and owner of social media platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) who has been campaigning for Trump.
“I’m gonna talk about his running mate — his running mate, Elon Musk,” Walz said. “Elon’s on that stage jumping around, skipping like a dipsh*t.”
Walz accused Musk, who recently offered people $1 million to sign a PAC petition, of trying to buy the election.
Walz ended his speech by saying that they are still the “underdogs” in the campaign.
“We know we’re going to leave it all in the field, Wisconsin. We got same-day voter registration and it’s open today,” Walz said. “We need you door knocking. We need to call.”
The rally’s message resonated with Carey Medina, a 28-year-old from Madison.
“[Walz] just really seems like a relatable guy and like some of those speakers were saying it — what you see is what you get…,” Medina said. “That’s amazing. We need that. We need leaders for the country that are working for the people, not for themselves.”
Medina said that she was planning on trying to go to vote early after the rally, and she learned some information that could help her make the case to undecided voters. One piece of information she said she learned is that elections in Wisconsin are decided by a few votes per voting ward — a point made by Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway who also addressed the crowd. Both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections were decided by a little over 20,000 votes in Wisconsin, or about three votes per precinct.
Medina said the issues at stake in the election made her want to go canvas this year — this would be her first time. She said one of her top priorities is reproductive rights as well as the separation of church and state.
Reproductive health issues were a focal point at the rally for speakers and attendees alike.
Rallygoers at Alliant Energy Center in Madison. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
Cindy McCallaster, who moved to Madison earlier this year to be close to her family, said reproductive rights are important to her because of her six grandchildren. Hope Bank of Madison, who attended the rally with McCallaster, said she benefited from Roe v. Wade because she was able to decide not to have children.
Bradley Whitford, the former West Wing actor and Madison native, gave an impassioned speech that highlighted the issue. He spoke about how his dad used to serve as the president of Planned Parenthood in Dane County.
“He was just a dad. Loved his wife and his daughters, and thought they deserved agency over their own bodies and access to the health care they need,” Whitford said. “But now the guy who brags about sexual assault is also bragging about the fact that he overturned Roe v. Wade and stripped those fundamental rights away.”
Whitford named some of the women who have faced devastating consequences under abortion bans. One of the women, Amber Nicole Thurman, died after she took abortion pills, encountered a rare complication and was denied emergency medical care due to Georgia’s abortion ban.
Obama pointed out Trump’s conflicting statements on abortion access, saying he has “tied himself into a pretzel.”
“When [Trump] ran for the first time, he said he’d support punishing women who got abortions. Then a few weeks ago, he says, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll be your protector,’” Obama said.
With two weeks to go, rally goers expressed anxiety about the presidential election. Bank of Madison said she is “a little bit terrified, hopeful, but terrified for sure.”
“It seems unthinkable that [Trump] could be elected again, but we were also confident in 2016. There’s a sense of horror and dread,” Bank said.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz rallied before a few hundred spectators at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, and her running mate, Walz, have been blanketing Pennsylvania, a key swing state in the 2024 presidential race. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)
PITTSBURGH — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz urged a crowd of Pittsburgh Steelers fans to vote early as he rallied a few hundred of them Tuesday night at the professional football team’s home at Acrisure Stadium.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ Democratic presidential running mate campaigned in the southwestern Pennsylvania city as the campaign continues its blitz of the coveted swing state that could decide the 2024 presidential contest.
The race between Harris and former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, remains razor-thin in the Keystone State.
Former Steeler Will Allen introduced Walz to a cheering crowd dotted with Steelers hats, jerseys and Terrible Towels, the team’s official rally towel.
“Give me my moment here, yesterday I made my first trip to Lambeau Field,” Walz said, referring to his trip to Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the home of the Green Bay Packers football team. “Today, I’m making my first trip into Steeler territory, so thank you.”
The former high school football coach and teacher visited Wisconsin Monday, which is alongside Pennsylvania on the list of must-win swing states. The others include Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and North Carolina.
Early mail-in ballot voting is already underway in Pennsylvania.
“If you’re voting by mail, get the damn thing in the mail as soon as possible,” Walz said.
Harris campaigned in Erie, Pennsylvania, Monday night before heading to Michigan Tuesday.
Attacks on Trump
Like Harris did in the state’s northwestern corner the previous night, Walz roused the Pittsburgh crowd by attacking Trump’s mental fitness.
“I would not usually encourage this, but go watch this guy, watch his town hall. He stopped taking questions and stood frozen on stage for 30 minutes while they played his Spotify list,” Walz said, referring to Trump’s Monday night town hall outside of Philadelphia.
“If this were your grandfather, you would take the keys away,” Walz said to laughter. “And I tell you this, look, it would be funny if this guy weren’t running for president of the United States.”
In Erie, Harris warned that Trump is “unhinged” and played video clips of the former president explaining his potential plans to use the military to silence “the enemy from within.”
Trump wrote on his social media platform Tuesday morning that Harris’ own health report is “really bad.”
“With all of the problems that she has, there is a real question as to whether or not she should be running for President!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Harris’ medical report released Saturday describes her “in excellent health.”
Walz on the farm
While Walz wore a white shirt and sports jacket when talking to the football fans, earlier in the day he donned a flannel shirt and told supporters gathered outside a barn in Lawrence County that he and Harris would fight for American farmers and resources for rural residents.
The governor also highlighted his bona fides as a veteran, hunter and gun owner. His speech can be viewed in full on C-SPAN.
The Harris-Walz campaign released a plan Tuesday for rural America that promised to shore up rural health care and support small farms.
Walz also stopped at a garden center and cafe in Butler County before heading into the city.
The pro-Democrat Rural USA political action committee highlighted economic analyses Tuesday that show Trump’s promised tariffs would cause farmers to lose business as exports would decline.
Pennsylvania farmers could lose $111 million in soy exports, $50 million in corn exports, $22 million in beef exports and $20 million in wheat exports, according to the analysis from the University of Illinois Department of Agriculture and Consumer Economics.
“These new studies literally show that Trump’s tariffs will put Pennsylvania farmers out of business,” Chris Gibbs, an Ohio corn and soybean farmer and president of Rural Voices USA, said in a statement Tuesday. “Exports are vital for Pennsylvania farmers and they cannot absorb the sharp fall in exports and prices these studies foreshadow.”
Trump defended his tariff proposals at the Economic Club of Chicago earlier Tuesday. He told Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait during an hour-long interview that he would spur a manufacturing boom in the U.S. by making tariffs “so high, so horrible, so obnoxious” that companies would relocate.
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio is scheduled to campaign in Pittsburgh Thursday.
Gov. Tony Evers said he was "jazzed as hell" to welcome VP Kamala Harris to Wisconsin. (Baylor Spears | Wisconsin Examiner)
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers is joining fellow Democratic governors on a bus tour this week across the Midwest to talk to voters about the plans Vice President Kamala Harris has for creating jobs and lowering the cost of living for families.
The “Driving Forward” blue wall bus tour is starting off in Wisconsin Monday where Evers will join Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. The tour will include special guests such as Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who will join the governors in Green Bay.
This is the first time Evers is scheduled to appear as a Harris surrogate. In an television interview during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Evers said he believes Harris has a better chance of winning Wisconsin than President Joe Biden did. “I think she’s engaged young people, and I anticipate that campuses across the state will be … active politically,” Evers said. “I do think Joe Biden could have won Wisconsin. It would have been by a smaller amount that he made it before. I think Kamala Harris or win by much more than that.”
Over the course of six days, concluding in Pennsylvania with Gov. Josh Shapiro, Whitmer said she plans to make sure every Midwesterner knows that former President Donald Trump would drive the economy into the ground if given the chance. The best choice for Midwesterners in November is the Harris-Walz ticket, Whitmer said in a statement from her Fight Like Hell PAC.
“Vice President Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have lived lives like ours in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Their priority is lowering families’ costs, cutting taxes for the middle class, and creating more good American jobs here at home,” Whitmer said. “Donald Trump is only looking out for himself and his wealthy friends.”
Making note of Project 2025, the 900-plus-page right-wing blueprint outlining plans for Trump’s second term, Whitmer said Trump is seeking unchecked power that would trash economic opportunities for the working class.
Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania are all part of the blue wall, which is made of more than a dozen states that have voted Democratic in presidential elections since at least 1992. All three states flipped for Trump in 2016 and flipped again for Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020. All three states are being heavily wooed by Harris and Trump in 2024.
For Pennsylvania, Trump’s chaos is unwelcome and gets in the way of the progress happening in Democratic states, Shapiro said in a statement from the Fight Like Hell PAC.
“Democratic Governors know how to get stuff done and deliver real results – we’ve cut taxes and reduced costs for our constituents, invested in public safety, opened up the doors of opportunity, and protected our fundamental rights and freedoms,” Shapiro said. “We need Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the White House because they’ll be our partners in that work to expand economic opportunity and advance real freedom, bringing people together behind common sense solutions for the American people.”
Michigan Advance is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan J. Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on Facebook and X.
U.S. flags fly outside FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. The FBI’s latest national crime report, released in late September, shows an overall 3% decline in violent crime in 2023 compared with the previous year. Property crime also was down nationwide, dropping by 2.4% in 2023 compared with the previous year. (Mark Wilson | Getty Images)
Violent crime and property crime in the United States dropped in 2023, continuing a downward trend following higher rates of crime during the pandemic, according to the FBI’s latest national crime report.
Murders and intentional manslaughter, known as non-negligent manslaughter, fell by 11.6% from 2022. Property crime dropped by 2.4%.
Overall, FBI data shows that violent crime fell by 3%.
Violent crime has become a major issue in the 2024 presidential race, with former President Donald Trump claiming that crime has been “through the roof” under the Biden administration.
On the campaign trail, Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has cited findings from a different source — the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National Crime Victimization Survey — to argue that crime is out of control.
While the FBI’s data reflects only crimes reported to the police, the victimization survey is based on interviews conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and includes both reported and unreported crimes. Interviewees are asked whether they reported the crime to the police. But the survey does not include murder data and only tracks crimes against individuals aged 12 and older.
The victimization survey, released in mid-September, shows that the violent crime victimization rate rose from 16.4 per 1,000 people in 2020 to 22.5 per 1,000 in 2023. The report also notes that the 2023 rate is statistically similar to the rate in 2019, when Trump was in office.
Many crime data experts consider both sources trustworthy. But the agencies track different trends, measure crimes differently and collect data over varying time frames. Unlike the victimization survey, the FBI’s data is largely based on calls for service or police reports. Still, most crimes go unreported, which means the FBI’s data is neither entirely accurate nor complete.
The victimization surveys released throughout the peak years of the pandemic were particularly difficult to conduct, which is a key reason why, according to some experts, the FBI and the survey may show different trends.
As a result, these differences, which are often unknown or misunderstood, make it easier for anyone — including politicians — to manipulate findings to support their agendas.
Political candidates at the national, state and local levels on both sides of the aisle have used crime statistics in their campaigns this year, with some taking credit for promising trends and others using different numbers to flog their opponents. But it’s difficult to draw definitive conclusions about crime trends or attribute them to specific policies.
“There’s never any single reason why crime trends move one way or another,” said Ames Grawert, a crime data expert and senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice’s justice program. The Brennan Center is a left-leaning law and policy group.
“When an answer is presented that maybe makes intuitive sense or a certain political persuasion, it’s all too natural to jump to that answer. The problem is that that is just not how crime works,” Grawert told Stateline.
At an August rally in Philadelphia, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, said: “Violent crime was up under Donald Trump. That’s not even counting the crimes he committed.”
During Trump’s first three years in office, the violent crime rate per 100,000 people actually decreased each year, according to the FBI, from 376.5 in 2017, to 370.8 in 2018, to 364.4 in 2019.
It wasn’t until 2020 that the rate surged to 386.3, the highest under Trump, which is when the country experienced the largest one-year increase in murders.
We live in a world of sound bites, and people aren't taking the time to digest information and fact check. The onus is on the voter.
– Alex Piquero, criminology professor at the University of Miami and former director of the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics
Walz’s comments overlook the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social upheaval following George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020. And despite the increase that year, the violent crime rate in Trump’s final year remained slightly lower than in the last year of President Barack Obama’s administration. In 2016, the rate was 386.8 per 100,000 people.
Following the release of the FBI’s annual crime report last month, U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, a Republican running for attorney general in North Carolina, shared and later deleted a retweet on X that falsely claimed the FBI’s data showed zero homicides in Los Angeles and New Orleans last year. In fact, FBI data showed that the Los Angeles Police Department reported 325 homicides, while New Orleans police reported 198 in 2023.
Voters worry
Crime has emerged as a top issue on voters’ minds.
A Gallup poll conducted in March found that nearly 80% of Americans worry about crime and violence “a great deal” or “a fair amount,” ranking it above concerns such as the economy and illegal immigration. In another Gallup poll conducted late last year, 63% of respondents described crime in the U.S. as either extremely or very serious — the highest percentage since Gallup began asking the question in 2000.
Crime data usually lags by at least a year, depending on the agency or organization gathering and analyzing the statistics. But the lack of accurate, real-time crime data from official sources, such as federal or state agencies, may leave some voters vulnerable to political manipulation, according to some crime and voter behavior experts.
There are at least three trackers collecting and analyzing national and local crime data that aim to close the gap in real-time reporting. Developed by the Council on Criminal Justice, data consulting firm AH Datalytics and NORC at the University of Chicago, these trackers all show a similar trend of declining crime rates.
“We live in a world of sound bites, and people aren’t taking the time to digest information and fact check,” Alex Piquero, a criminology professor at the University of Miami and former director of the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, said in an interview with Stateline. “The onus is on the voter.”
Crime trends and limitations
In 2020, when shutdowns in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic kept people at home, homicides surged by nearly 30% — the largest single-year increase since the FBI began tracking crime.
In 2022, violent crime had fallen back to near pre-pandemic levels, and the FBI data showed a continued decline last year. The rate of violent crime dropped from about 377 incidents per 100,000 people in 2022, to around 364 per 100,000 in 2023, slightly below the 2019 rate.
The largest cities, those with populations of at least 1 million, saw the biggest drop in violent crime — nearly 7% — while cities with populations between 250,000 and 500,000 saw a slight 0.3% increase.
Rape incidents decreased by more than 9% and aggravated assault by nearly 3%. Burglary and larceny-theft decreased by 8% and 4%, respectively.
Motor vehicle theft, however, rose by 12% in 2023 compared with 2022, the highest rate of car theft since 2007, with 319 thefts per 100,000 people.
Although national data suggests an overall major decrease in crime across the country, some crime-data experts caution that that isn’t necessarily the case in individual cities and neighborhoods.
“It can be sort of simplistic to look at national trends. You have to allow the space for nuance and context about what’s happening at the local level too,” said Grawert, of the Brennan Center.
Some crime experts and politicians have criticized the FBI’s latest report, pointing out that not all law enforcement agencies have submitted their crime statistics.
The FBI is transitioning participating agencies to a new reporting system called the National Incident-Based Reporting System or NIBRS. The FBI mandated that the transition, which began in the late 1980s, be completed by 2021. This requirement resulted in a significant drop in agency participation for that year’s report because some law enforcement agencies couldn’t meet the deadline.
In 2022, the FBI relaxed the requirement, allowing agencies to use both the new and older reporting systems. Since the 2021 mandate, more law enforcement agencies have transitioned to the new reporting system.
Reporting crime data to the FBI is voluntary, and some departments may submit only a few months’ worth of data.
Although the FBI’s latest report covers 94% of the U.S. population, only 73% of all law enforcement agencies participated, using either reporting system, according to Stateline’s analysis of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program participation data. This means that 5,926 agencies, or 27%, did not report any data to the FBI.
The majority of the missing agencies are likely smaller rural departments that don’t participate due to limited resources and staff, according to some crime data experts.
But participation in the FBI’s crime reporting program has steadily increased over time, particularly after the drop in 2021. Many of the law enforcement agencies in the country’s largest cities submitted data for 2023, and every city agency serving a population of 1 million or more provided a full year of data, according to the FBI’s report.
Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org. Follow Stateline on Facebook and X.
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.”
___
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.
___
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.
___
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.
___
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.”
On Sept. 24, 2022, Wisconsin Watch published its first fact brief. It marked a new partnership with Gigafact, a nonprofit network of nonpartisan local, regional and expert newsrooms that fact-check and verify influential claims circulating online.
In the two years since, our more than 500 fact briefs stand out from other fact-checking efforts. We tackle questions that can be answered yes or no, and each brief is limited to 150 words.
Politicians and other news outlets have pointed to our fact briefs as an authoritative check on misinformation being injected into the public discourse. Online readership has spiked for relevant fact briefs during this summer’s political conventions and two presidential debates.
Bill Adair, founder of PolitiFact and author of “Beyond the Big Lie,” has spoken highly of Gigafact.
“In the years that we’ve been studying the rise of misinformation, we’ve realized there simply aren’t enough fact-checks to counter all the falsehoods,” Adair said. “Gigafact is addressing this head-on with a wonderfully simple approach that should yield a dramatic increase in fact checks.”
At Wisconsin Watch, we can report that Adair’s prediction turned out to be true. Fact briefs have been some of the most widely read articles that Wisconsin Watch has produced.
Here in reverse order is a countdown of our top 10 most read fact briefs.
Wisconsin’s constitution says: “The chief justice of the Supreme Court shall be the administrative head of the judicial system and shall exercise this administrative authority,” but adds “pursuant to procedures adopted by the Supreme Court.”
It depends on the circumstances. Employees may not receive unemployment benefits if they get fired for “violating reasonable requirements of the employer.”
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio made the claim while campaigning in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Walz, the Minnesota governor and 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate, signed legislation allowing Minnesota courts to take temporary jurisdiction in a child custody dispute between parents in another state if one wants a child to obtain “gender-affirming care” in Minnesota.
The law does not change when the state can take custody away from parents or enable the state to take away custody in connection with such care.
Former President Donald Trump made the claim in an April 2024 Milwaukee radio interview.
As of early that month, few law enforcement organizations had announced endorsements in the 2024 presidential election.
Police unions — not law enforcement agencies such as police or sheriff’s departments — endorse candidates.
In early September, the Fraternal Order of Police, the country’s largest lobbying organization representing more than 350,000 law enforcement officers, endorsed Trump. In response, about 100 law enforcement officials endorsed Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made the claim during a 2023 Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee, drawing attention to Trump’s false claim.
Trump said in a 2022 social media post: “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
Wisconsin’s legal drinking age is 21, but people under 21 can legally drink alcoholic beverages in establishments such as taverns and restaurants if they are with their parents, guardians or spouses of legal drinking age.
However, establishments can refuse to serve underage people.
Walz signed a Minnesota law requiring public schools to provide free menstrual products to “all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district.”
The Minnesota Education Department told Wisconsin Watch: “Each school district should have its own plan to comply with the legislation. (The department) has not directed schools to provide these products in boys’ bathrooms.” Some schools have stocked them in unisex bathrooms instead.
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., made the claim about embassies, the official headquarters for U.S. diplomats and government representatives serving in foreign countries, at the 2024 Wisconsin Republican Party convention.
Under Biden, three U.S. embassies — in Afghanistan, Belarus and Sudan — suspended and have not resumed operations, each following unrest in those countries.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made the attack in an interview with the conservative Wisconsin Right Now website as he was competing with Trump and others for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
The federal debt was $27.8 trillion when Trump left office, $7.8 trillion higher than when he entered.
The debt — borrowing done when the government spends more than it takes in — is a result of decisions made by a president and Congress during a president’s term, but also by decisions made by previous presidents and Congresses.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
Absentee ballots are prepared to be mailed at the Wake County Board of Elections on Sept. 17, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. North Carolina will send out absentee ballots to military and overseas citizens by Sept. 20. Other absentee ballots will be sent by Sept. 24 to voters who requested ballots by mail. Early voting begins Oct. 17. (Photo by Allison Joyce/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — With seven weeks until Election Day, the campaign machines for Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump appealed to coveted voters in the battleground states with events and rallies targeting the Black and Gen Z populations, rural voters and conservative Christians.
The Trump campaign set its eyes on Michigan Tuesday, as the former president geared up for an evening town hall in Flint — his first event since a second apparent assassination attempt on his life Sunday, this time at his Florida golf course.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, spoke Tuesday afternoon at a rally in a barn in Sparta, just north of Grand Rapids, where he once again talked about a population of migrants from Haiti who live in Springfield, Ohio. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are living legally in the U.S. under temporary protected status.
The migrants “primarily from Hatia have been dropped into Springfield,” Vance said, mispronouncing the name of the Caribbean nation.
Trump and Vance continue to face severe scrutiny for peddling lies that Haitian migrants in the town had been eating pet cats and dogs. Trump hurled the accusation during last Tuesday’s ABC News debate hosted that drew 67 million viewers.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday ordered state police to sweep Springfield schools that have been repeated targets of bomb threats since the town was thrust into the national spotlight.
Campaigns seek media attention
Vance took several questions from local Michigan reporters Tuesday and said he did so to distinguish himself from Harris, whom he accused of fearing the “friendly American press corps.”
Vance made the comment less than an hour before Harris sat down for a public discussion with a three-member panel from the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia. Trump’s interview with the association in July became notorious after he said Harris “happened to turn Black” during her political career.
Both campaigns have been seeking news media exposure.
Harris sat for a one-on-one with Philadelphia’s ABC affiliate Friday. That same day, Trump hosted a press conference at his Trump National Golf Course in Los Angeles.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, hit central Georgia Tuesday, where he recorded an interview with a local news anchor in Macon for WMAZ-TV and spoke to staff at one of the campaign’s field offices.
The Harris-Walz operation in Georgia includes 28 offices and over 200 staff, according to the campaign.
Fried chicken biscuit and tax breaks
Walz stopped at the long-established H&H Soul Food Restaurant in Macon, where he ordered a biscuit with fried chicken, bacon jam and pimento cheese, according to reporters traveling with him.
Walz took the opportunity at the eatery to plug Harris’ platform to simplify taxes for small businesses and give a $50,000 tax deduction for start-up costs.
He also attended campaign events in Atlanta before traveling to a rally Tuesday night in Asheville, North Carolina.
Earlier Tuesday, the Harris campaign released a statement in reaction to a ProPublica report about 28-year-old Amber Nicole Thurman, who died in Georgia because she was denied urgent care under the state’s strict abortion ban.
“This young mother should be alive, raising her son, and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school,” Harris said in the statement. “This is exactly what we feared when Roe was struck down.”
When asked earlier Tuesday about the ProPublica report, Vance said he’d “like to learn a little bit more” about Thurman’s death.
“I’ve never spoken to a single pro-life person who doesn’t believe in exceptions to cover this exact scenario,” Vance told a local Michigan reporter.
Six states have abortion bans in effect that have no health exceptions, according to KFF Health News’ abortion law tracker.
On Monday evening, Vance told an audience at the Georgia Faith and Freedom Victory Dinner in Atlanta that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 decision to overturn Roe, which established federal abortion rights, was a “victory.”
“I stand here as the vice presidential nominee saying the Republican Party is proud to be the pro-life and the pro-family party,” Vance said before promising that a second Trump presidency would usher in investments in fertility treatments, prenatal care, maternal health and newborn expenses.
Trump spent Monday night plugging his new cryptocurrency venture alongside his sons in an interview on the social media platform X. The Trump family unveiled a crypto business Monday under the name World Liberty Financial.
Youth voters
The Harris campaign marked National Voter Registration Day Tuesday with what it’s calling an “all-hands-on-deck mobilization” to reach young voters.
The campaign plans to deputize celebrities, influencers and organizers to college campuses, basketball tournaments and “bracelet-making events” — in an apparent nod to Swiftie friendship bracelets following the pop star’s Harris endorsement last week.
Organizers anticipate a “targeted presence” at Historically Black Colleges and Universities as well as Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
Pop star Billie Eilish and her songwriter brother Fineas O’Connell endorsed the vice president Tuesday on social media and urged their followers to visit the Democratic Party’s IWillVote.com platform.
Among the other celebrities being deployed by the campaign to reach university students: actress Jane Fonda and celebrity scientist Bill Nye.
East Coast stops
The campaigns continue at full speed Wednesday, and the candidates and their surrogates will make stops up and down the eastern U.S.
Harris will deliver remarks at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Leadership conference in Washington, D.C.
Trump will host an evening rally in Uniondale, New York
Vance will deliver remarks during the afternoon in Raleigh, North Carolina
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will deliver remarks at campaign events in New York City
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 Project 2025 national conservative policy plan does not directly call for repealing the Affordable Care Act.
Campaigning in Milwaukee in connection with the Democratic National Convention, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz claimed it does.
Project 2025 was launched in 2022 by the Heritage Foundation think tank. It includes a 920-page “Mandate for Leadership” plan.
The plan got help from 140 people who worked in former President Donald Trump’s administration, CNN reported.
The Affordable Care Act is a health care reform law that provides health insurance subsidies.
The plan calls for separating the subsidized and unsubsidized health insurance markets, saying that would make coverage more affordable in the nonsubsidized market.
Physicians for a National Health Program, which advocates for universal health care, says the change would eliminate certain patient protections.
The plan also calls for excluding the morning-after pill and men’s contraceptives from coverage mandated under the law.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
We found no evidence to back an attack by Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, who alleged that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “actively encouraged rioters to burn down Minneapolis during the summer of 2020.”
The Ohio U.S. senator’s reference Aug. 16, 2024, in Milwaukee was to violent protests, including fire being set to a police station, following the police murder in Minneapolis of George Floyd.
Protests began May 26, 2020, the day after Floyd’s death. Walz, now the Democratic vice presidential nominee, activated the National Guard May 28. He mobilized the full guard, an unprecedented move, on May 30.
On June 1, then-President Donald Trump said “I fully agree with the way he (Walz) handled it the last couple of days.” He said Walz “called up big numbers and the big numbers knocked them out so fast it was like bowling pins.”
Vance’s spokesperson did not cite evidence that Walz encouraged rioters.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, signed legislation allowing Minnesota courts to take “temporary emergency jurisdiction” in a child custody case involving “gender-affirming” care.
The April 2023 law does not change when the state can take custody away from parents or enable the state to take away custody in connection with such care.
The law defines gender-affirming care as “medically necessary” care that can include aligning “the patient’s appearance … with the patient’s gender identity.”
The law enables Minnesota to take temporary jurisdiction in a child custody dispute between parents in another state if one wants a child to obtain gender-affirming care in Minnesota.
Twenty-five states restrict gender-affirming care.
A spokesperson for Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance cited the Minnesota law to back Vance’s claim Aug. 7, 2024, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, that Walz supports removing custody from parents who “don’t want to consent to sex changes.”
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in May 2023 signed legislation requiring public schools to provide free menstrual products in all restrooms used by students in grades 4-12.
The bill’s lead author said it enables transgender students to access menstrual products without having to ask for them.
Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, echoing fellow Republicans across the country, claimed that Walz signed the legislation “to force women’s feminine hygiene products to be installed in boys’ bathrooms.”
Johnson made the statement Aug. 7, 2024, the day after Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, named Walz her running mate.
Walz has signed bills that made Minnesota a refuge for youths seeking gender-affirming care, bar libraries from banning LGBTQ books and ban conversion therapy.
Twenty-one states, not including Wisconsin, require that K-12 schools provide students free pads and tampons or offer funding for schools to purchase period products, Education Week reported.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one. It has been corrected from a previous version that included the text of a different fact brief.
Vice President Kamala Harris declared herself and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “joyful warriors” against Donald Trump on Wednesday as they spent their first full day campaigning together across the Midwest. They got an unusual glimpse of how hotly contested the region would be when Harris overlapped on a Wisconsin tarmac with Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance.
The Democrats visited Wisconsin and Michigan, hoping to shore up support among the younger, diverse, labor-friendly voters who were instrumental in helping President Joe Biden win the 2020 election.
Harris told the day’s first rally in Eau Claire, “As Tim Walz likes to point out, we are joyful warriors.” Contributing to that feeling, the Harris campaign said it had raised $36 million in the first 24 hours after she announced Walz as her running mate.
The vice president said the pair looks at the future with optimism, unlike Trump, the former president and Republican White House nominee, whom she accused of being stuck in the past and preferring a confrontational style of politics — even as she criticized her opponent herself.
“Someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again have the chance to sit behind the seal of the United States,” Harris said, her voice rising.
Dan Miller, from Pelican Lake, Wisconsin, who was among 12,000-plus Eau Claire rally attendees, said Biden “has been an incredible president, but he just isn’t the same messenger.”
“And sometimes you need a better messenger,” Miller said. “And that’s Kamala.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, addresses the crowd during a campaign visit Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024, in Eau Claire, Wis. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Later, at an evening event in an airport hangar outside Detroit where the campaign announced a crowd of 15,000, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer — herself frequently mentioned as a future presidential candidate — declared, “We need a strong woman in the White House and it’s about damn time.”
“This election’s going to be a fight,” Harris told the same event. “We like a good fight.”
The swing was especially important for Harris since Biden’s winning coalition from four years ago has shown signs of fraying over the summer — particularly in Michigan, which has emerged as a focal point of Democratic divisions over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
With the president now out of the race, leaders of the Arab American community and key unions say they are encouraged by Harris’ running mate choice. Walz’s addition to the ticket has soothed some tensions, signaling to some leaders that Harris had heard concerns about another leading contender for the vice presidential slot, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who they felt had gone too far in his support for Israel.
“The party is recognizing that there’s a coalition they have to rebuild,” said Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of the heavily Arab American community of Dearborn, Michigan. “Picking Walz is another sign of good faith.”
Lingering dissensions were nonetheless on display during Harris’ Michigan speech, when she was interrupted by protesters opposing Israel’s fighting with Hamas. At first, Harris said to those trying to disrupt her, “I am here because I believe in democracy and everybody’s voice matters.”
That was a response similar to Biden’s, who often said when interrupted at his rallies that protesters should be allowed to speak before being removed by security. Harris, however, then quickly pivoted to a tougher tack, continuing, “But I am speaking now.” That sparked cheers from most of the audience.
“If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that,” the vice president continued over the protesters. “Otherwise, I’m speaking.”
Those demonstrating were eventually led away, but not before a tense confrontation between Harris supporters and protesters who screamed at one another.
Trump, meanwhile, has emphasized appealing to Midwestern voters with his choice of Vance, an Ohio senator, as his running mate. Vance bracketed the Harris-Walz ticket with Michigan and Wisconsin appearances of his own Wednesday.
U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio waves to the crowd after being nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate during the Republican National Convention on July 15, 2024, at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. (Joe Timmerman / Wisconsin Watch)
Vance overlapped enough that while Harris was still greeting a group of Girl Scouts who came to see her arrive at Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Wisconsin, Vance’s campaign plane landed nearby and was taxiing in the distance. Harris posed for a group picture with the girls around the same time Vance was deplaning, and he began walking over to Air Force Two, trailed by his security detail.
The vice president eventually climbed into her motorcade, and it pulled away before they could interact. Still, that the pair came so close to doing so was unusual given the carefully scripted nature of campaign schedules.
“I just wanted to check out my future plane,” Vance later told reporters, meaning that he’d travel on Air Force Two should he and Trump be elected in November. He also criticized Harris for not holding press conferences since she became a presidential candidate.
“If those people want to call me weird I call it a badge of honor,” Vance said, responding to a moniker Walz used to describe him that made the Minnesota governor notable online in the days before Harris tapped him as her running mate.
Walz had some critical words for Vance in both Wisconsin and Michigan but trained most of his sharpest words on Trump, saying the former president “mocks our laws, he sows chaos and division amongst the people, and that’s to say nothing of the job he did as president.”
Walz also stressed that he and Harris are promoting neighborliness and common community, even suggesting that his state’s football fans were happy for Detroit’s long-underperforming NFL team when it nearly made the most recent Super Bowl: “Vikings fans are proud of the Lions.”
The momentum could be pivotal in Detroit, which is nearly 80% Black, where leaders for months had warned administration officials that voter apathy could cost them in a city that’s typically a stronghold for their party.
Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the NAACP Detroit branch, said the excitement in the city now is “mind-blowing.” He likened it to Barack Obama’s first presidential run in 2008, when voters waited in long lines to help elect the nation’s first Black president.
Some Democratic leaders in Michigan had grown concerned that choosing the wrong running mate could slow that momentum, however, and fracture a coalition that has only recently started to unify.
Arab American leaders, who hold significant influence in Michigan due to a large presence in metro Detroit, had been vocal in their opposition to Shapiro due to his past comments regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Those leaders specifically pointed to a comment he made earlier this year regarding protests on university campuses, which they felt unfairly compared the actions of student protesters to those of white supremacists. Shapiro, who is Jewish, has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while remaining a staunch supporter of Israel.
Osama Siblani, the publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News and a prominent leader in Michigan’s large Muslim community, was among those who met with White House adviser Tom Perez in Michigan last week. Perez has maintained contact with some Dearborn leaders since he and other top officials traveled there with Biden to mend ties with the community.
Siblani said he met with Perez for over an hour on July 29 and told him that if Harris chose Shapiro, it would “shut down” future conversations.
“Not picking Shapiro is a very good step. It cracks the door open a little more for us,” Siblani said.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit and nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletter to get our investigative stories and Friday news roundup.This story is published in partnership with The Associated Press.
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz referred to ladders as part of his criticism of former President Donald Trump’s advocacy of a border wall to fight illegal immigration.
Walz was interviewed on CNN a week before Kamala Harris chose him as her vice presidential running mate.
Walz said Trump “talks about this wall. I always say, let me know how high it is. If it’s 25 feet, then I’ll invest in the 30-foot ladder factory. That’s not how you stop this. You stop this using electronics. You stop it using more border control agents and you stop it by having a legal system that allows for that tradition of allowing folks to come here, just like my relatives did.”
The Wisconsin Republican Party claimed Aug. 6 that Walz suggested in the interview that he wanted to provide ladders to migrants trying to illegally enter the U.S.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in May 2023 signed legislation that gives free public college tuition to Minnesota residents, including undocumented immigrants, whose families earn less than $80,000 per year.
The Walz claim was made by Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who represents most of northern Wisconsin, on Aug. 6, 2024. That day, Kamala Harris announced Walz as her vice presidential running mate.
Walz also signed legislation that makes undocumented Minnesota residents eligible for the state’s low-income health insurance program. They must pay premiums and other costs.
On other immigration issues, The New York Times reported, Walz signed legislation making undocumented immigrants eligible for Minnesota driver’s licenses; he supports a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants, including “Dreamers” brought to the U.S. as children; and as a member of Congress, he voted for stricter screening of refugees, but changed his position when he ran for governor.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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