It’s Wednesday. This time next week, all ballots will have been cast. *Gulp* Only six days until Election Day! Here’s what’s happening today: - Biden appeared to call Trump’s supporters “garbage.” His team sought to clarify what Biden meant, but Harris distanced herself this morning.
- Trump brought Puerto Rico’s shadow senator on stage during a Tuesday rally.
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The Supreme Court just allowed Virginia to purge some voters.
- A Yankees fan tried prying Mookie Betts’s glove off him during last night’s game.
I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send tips, commentary, feedback and cookie recipes to cmartel@thehill.com. Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up here. |
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200 miles away but light-years apart otherwise: |
Exactly one week to the hour of the first Election Day polls closing, Vice President Harris spent her Tuesday evening giving a grand address on the White House Ellipse, speaking to a riled-up crowd of an estimated 75,000 supporters.
“America, let us reach for that future. Let us fight for this beautiful country we love. And in seven days, we have the power to turn the page and start writing the next chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told,” she proclaimed in the same spot President Trump addressed a crowd of his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, before hundreds violently stormed the U.S. Capitol. Harris certainly took advantage of the official White House backdrop to set the scene.
‘5 takeaways as Kamala Harris takes on Trump from Ellipse’: The Hill
Plus: ‘In Closing, Harris Casts Herself as the Unifier and Trump as a “Petty Tyrant”’: The New York Times
Less than 200 miles away ... Harris’s rival Trump spent his evening doing damage control with Latino voters. Trump’s Pennsylvania rally repeated glowing praise of Puerto Rico, the U.S. territory that a comedian verbally trashed last weekend. While he made no mention of the comedian’s offensive comment, he slipped in references to the majority-Hispanic island and polls showing his strength among Latino voters. "No president has done more for Puerto Rico than I have,” Trump told supporters.
“I’m so glad we’re getting support from Latinos like never before,” Trump also said after inviting one of Puerto Rico’s two shadow senators, Zoraida Buxó, to join him on stage. We’re setting every record — Hispanics, Latinos — no one loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do.” The rally jumbotron featured in large writing, “TRUMP WILL FIX IT.” While the writer was not referencing the headache stemming from Sunday’s comic, it certainly was fitting. |
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Biden did complicate Harris’s night a bit: |
The only real snag from Harris’s evening came from her current boss, President Biden, who may have compared Trump’s supporters to garbage. The White House argued that Biden’s quote has been misinterpreted — they claim he meant Trump’s Madison Square Garden ~rhetoric~ was garbage, not his supporters. 📹 Watch the clip
What did Biden say?:
"Just the other day … a speaker at his rally called Puerto Rico a ‘floating island of garbage.’ Well, let me tell you something … where I’m from, in my home state of Delaware, they’re good, decent, honorable people."
“The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American. It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been,” Biden said, according to a White House transcript.
According to The Hill's Brett Samuels, to push back on the idea that Biden was going after Trump supporters, the White House "provided a fuller transcript of the comment, which included an apostrophe with 'supporter’s,' to indicate Biden was referring to comedian Tony Hinchcliffe’s 'demonization of Latinos' as 'garbage.'" ^ What do you think? Did Biden mean Trump’s rhetoric or his supporters?
This morning: Harris distanced herself from Biden’s comment. “First of all, he clarified his comments, but let me be clear. I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for,” Harris told supporters this morning.
How Trump’s allies are handling this: Trump and his allies are trying to equate Biden’s comment to former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s calling Trump supporters a “basket of deplorables” in 2016. (The New York Times) |
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Harris is spending today in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and then Wisconsin. Trump will campaign in North Carolina and Wisconsin. Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) is holding a town hall in Pennsylvania, and Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) will meet with voters in North Carolina. Today’s campaign schedules
Follow along: Here’s The Hill’s live blog compiling the key campaign trail moments today. |
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➤ TIDBITS FROM THE TRAIL: |
How many people have already voted?: More than 54 million (!)
Schwarzenegger crossed party lines: Former actor and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) announced his endorsement of Harris this morning. 🔎 Read his X post
You could see Harris’s crowd from Virginia: ABC 7’s Scott Thuman posted a video of the overflow crowd in Virginia. 📹 Here’s footage
The Harris campaign rented out the Vegas Sphere: 📹 Check out this video of the Harris ad displayed on the Sphere.
📸 Barbara Bush knocked on doors for Harris: Yes, the former first daughter.
Wanna see Martin Sheen sing?: Politico’s Natalie Allison posted, “A couple blocks away from Trump’s Allentown, Pa. rally, Martin Sheen is singing ‘America, The Beautiful’ at the Harris headquarters.” 📹 Watch |
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➤ MORE HEADLINES FROM THE TRAIL: |
- ‘Why Trump Has an Edge With These 11 Michigan Voters — Even Though They Don’t Like Him’: The New York Times
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‘Early, mail-in votes raise questions about possible election results’: The Hill
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‘Majority of swing-state voters say they fear violence if Trump loses’: The Washington Post
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‘Nikki Haley Has Made Her Peace With Trump. Not All of Her Supporters Have.’: The Wall Street Journal
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The Supreme Court just made an emergency decision — Virginia can purge some voters: |
“Virginia can cancel more than 1,600 voter registrations the state claims are held by noncitizens in advance of next week’s election, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.”
What this means politically: “The emergency decision marks a loss for the Biden administration, which convinced lower courts to reinstate the registrations because the removals took place too close to the election. The court’s three liberals — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — publicly dissented.” Read more on what this means from The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld. |
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➤ KEEP IN MIND OVER THE NEXT WEEK:
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The Supreme Court has been dealing with three more election-related cases on its emergency docket. Including: - Two requests from former Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be removed from the ballot in Michigan and Wisconsin
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The Republican National Committee’s (RNC) challenge related to provisional ballots in Pennsylvania
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🌽 Celebrate: Today is National Candy Corn Day! A deliciously festive treat (I say this fully expecting hate mail from you all 😉)
This is actually wild: A Yankees fan tried grabbing Mookie Betts’s glove from him during Wednesday’s World Series game. 📹 Watch the clip ^ Sooo, what was this man’s plan if he did manage to grab the glove? I’m sure no one at the stadium would do anything about it. 🤔 |
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The House and Senate are out. President Biden is in Washington, and Vice President Harris is bebopping around battleground states North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin today. (all times Eastern) |
- 12:30 p.m.: Harris campaigns in Raleigh, N.C. 💻 Livestream
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1 p.m.: Former President Trump campaigns in Rocky Mount, N.C. 💻 Livestream
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1:30 p.m.: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre briefs reporters. 💻 Livestream
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4:35 p.m.: Harris campaigns in Harrisburg, Pa. 💻 Livestream
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5:30 p.m.: Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) campaigns in Bedford, Pa. 💻 Livestream
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6 p.m.: Biden and first lady Jill Biden host a Halloween trick-or-treating party at the White House. 💻 Livestream
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7 p.m.: Trump campaigns in Green Bay, Wis. 💻 Livestream
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7:30 p.m.: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) campaigns in Asheville, N.C. 💻 Livestream
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9:30 p.m.: Harris campaigns in Madison, Wis. Singer Gracie Abrams, the band Mumford & Sons and others will join. 💻 Livestream
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