WASHINGTON (AP) — It could be a well-rehearsed zinger, a too-loud sigh — or a full performance befuddled enough to shockingly end a sitting president’s reelection bid.

Notable moments from past presidential debates demonstrate how the candidates’ words and body language can make them look especially relatable or hopelessly out-of-touch — showcasing if a candidate is at the top of their policy game or out to sea. Will past be prologue when Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump debate in Philadelphia on Tuesday?

“Being live television events, without a script, without any way of knowing how they are going to evolve — anything can happen,” said Alan Schroeder, author of “Presidential Debates: 50 years of High-Risk TV.”

Here’s a look at some highs, lows and curveballs from presidential debates past.

Biden blows it

Though it’s still fresh in the nation’s mind, the June debate in Atlanta pitting President Joe Biden against Trump may go down as the most impactful political faceoff in history.

Biden, 81, shuffled onto the stage, frequently cleared his throat, said $15 when he meant that his administration helped cut the price of insulin to $35 per month on his first answer and inexplicably gave Trump an early chance to pounce on the chaotic 2021 withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan. It got even worse for the president 12 minutes in, when Biden appeared lose his train of thought entirely.

“The, uh — excuse me, with the COVID, um, dealing with, everything we had to do with, uh … if … Look …” Biden stammered before concluding ”we finally beat Medicare.” He meant that his administration had successfully taken on “big pharma,” some of the nation’s top prescription drug companies.

Biden at first blamed having a cold, then suggested he’d overprepared. Later, he pointed to jetlag after pre-debate travel overseas.

In the frantic hours immediately after the debate, a Biden campaign spokesperson said, “ Of course, he’s not dropping out.” That was correct until 28 days later, when the president did just that, bowing out and endorsing Harris on July 21.

The age question

Biden was asked in Atlanta about his age and got into an argument with Trump over golf. It was the opposite of knowing a sensitive question was coming and still making the answer sound spontaneous — a feat President Ronald Reagan pulled off while landing a line for the ages during 1984’s second presidential debate.

Reagan was 73 and facing 56-year-old Democratic challenger Walter Mondale. In the first debate, Reagan struggled to remember facts and occasionally looked confused. An adviser suggested afterward that aides “filled his head with so many facts and figures that he lost his spontaneity.”

So Reagan’s team took a more hands-off approach toward the second debate. When Reagan got a question about his mental and physical stamina that he had to know was coming, he was ready enough to make the response feel unplanned.

Asked whether his age might hinder his handling of major challenges, Raegan responded, “Not at all,” before smoothly continuing: “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” The audience, and even Mondale, cracked up.

Then, capitalizing on years of Hollywood-honed comedic training, the president took a sip of water, giving the crowd more time to laugh. Finally, he grinned and left little doubt that he’d rehearsed, adding, “It was Seneca, or it was Cicero, I don’t know which, that said, ‘If it was not for the elders correcting the mistakes of the young, there would be no state.’”

Years later, Mondale conceded, “That was really the end of my campaign that night.”

Reagan is further remembered for using a light touch to neutralize criticisms from Democratic President Jimmy Carter in a 1980 debate. When Carter accused him of wanting to cut Medicare, Reagan scolded, “There you go again.”

The line worked so well that he turned it into something of a trademark rejoinder going forward.

Gaffes galore

In 1976, Republican President Gerald Ford had a notable moment in a debate against Carter — and not in a good way. The president declared that there is “no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.”

With Moscow controlling much of that part of the world, the surprised moderator asked if he’d understood correctly. Ford stood by his answer, then spent days on the campaign trail trying to explain it away. He lost that November.

Another awkward moment came in 2012, when Republican nominee Mitt Romney got a debate question about gender pay equality and recalled soliciting women’s groups’ help to find qualified female applicants for state posts: “They brought us whole binders full of women.”

Aaron Kall, director of the University of Michigan’s debate program, said key lines affect not just who a debate’s perceived winner is but also fundraising and media coverage for days, or even weeks, afterward.

“The closer the election, the more zingers and important debate lines can matter,” Kall said.

Not all slips have a devastating impact, though.

Then-Sen. Barack Obama, in a 2008 Democratic presidential primary debate, dismissively told Hillary Clinton, “You’re likable enough, Hillary.” That drew backlash, but Obama recovered.

The same couldn’t be said for the short-lived 2012 Republican primary White House bid of then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Despite repeated attempts and excruciatingly long pauses, Perry could not remember the third of the three federal agencies he’d promised to shutter if elected.

Finally, he sheepishly muttered, “Oops.”

The Energy Department, which he later ran during the Trump administration, is what slipped his mind.

Getting personal

Another damaging moment opened a 1988 presidential debate, when Democrat Michael Dukakis was pressed about his opposition to capital punishment in a question that evoked his wife.

“If Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?” CNN anchor Bernard Shaw asked. Dukakis showed little emotion, responding, “I don’t see any evidence that it’s a deterrent.”

Dukakis later said he wished he’d said that his wife “is the most precious thing, she and my family, that I have in this world.”

That year’s vice presidential debate featured one of the best-remembered, pre-planned one-liners.

When Republican Dan Quayle compared himself to John F. Kennedy while debating Lloyd Bentsen, the Democrat was ready. He’d studied Quayle’s campaigning and seen him invoke Kennedy in the past.

“Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy,” Bentsen began slowly and deliberately, drawing out the moment. “Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”

The audience erupted in applause and laughter. Quayle was left to stare straight ahead.

Wordless blunders

Quayle and George H.W. Bush still easily won the 1988 election. But they lost in 1992 after then-President Bush was caught on camera looking at his watch while Democrat Bill Clinton talked to an audience member during a town hall debate. Some thought it made Bush look bored and aloof.

In another instance of a nonverbal debate miscue, then-Democratic Vice President Al Gore was criticized for a subpar opening 2000 debate performance with Republican George W. Bush in which he repeatedly and very audibly sighed.

During their second, town hall-style debate, Gore moved so close to Bush while the Republican answered one question that Bush finally looked over and offered a confident nod, drawing laughter from the audience.

A similar moment occurred in 2016, as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton faced the audience to answer questions during a debate with Trump. Trump moved in close behind her, narrowed his eyes and glowered.

Clinton later wrote of the incident: “He was literally breathing down my neck. My skin crawled.”

That didn’t stop Trump from claiming the presidency a few weeks later.

Moore’s involvement with the PAC underscores the significant extent to which he has tied himself to the campaign of Alsobrooks, 53, the Prince George’s County executive. Analysts believe the Nov. 5 election to succeed the retiring Sen. Ben Cardin presents Moore’s biggest political test since his own 2022 election victory.

Moore “is actively raising money into the PAC, and will be hosting a high-dollar fundraiser for its efforts later this month,” said a statement released by the Unity First PAC in response to Baltimore Sun questions. Ned Miller, who was Moore’s 2022 campaign manager, is a senior adviser to the super PAC, which can raise unlimited sums from individuals, corporations and unions.

The PAC “will make clear to Maryland voters how Larry Hogan will turn control of the U.S. Senate over to MAGA Republicans so they can enact their own extremist policies like a national abortion ban and obstructing common sense gun laws,” Miller said in a statement to The Sun.

With Democrats holding a 51-49 U.S. Senate majority, the race — which polls say is very close — is seen by both parties as significant in the battle for Senate control. Democrats must defend a handful of seats in states that Democratic President Joe Biden narrowly won in 2020, plus three others — West Virginia, Ohio and Montana — won by Donald Trump, the former president who is again the Republican nominee.

The Maryland race’s dynamic is unusual because it pits Moore’s close ally against Hogan, a popular Republican who served two terms ending in January 2023 and was Moore’s immediate predecessor. The two have openly disagreed on policy since Moore became governor.

But Moore, 45, told The Sun on Thursday in an interview: “There’s nothing personal about this at all. Who sits as Maryland senator, it matters to me. I endorsed Angela early, and I was proud to, and I told her that I’ll be with her until the end.”

Moore has criticized Hogan, 68, for not supporting the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a public school reform plan, and scrapping the Red Line — a proposed east-west Baltimore transit route — in 2015. Hogan called the Red Line a “boondoggle.” Last April, Moore used the same term — boondoggle — to describe the Hogan-approved Purple Line addition to the Washington Metro that has seen large cost overruns. This summer, Hogan criticized vehicle registration fee increases under Moore and the governor’s decision to try to revive the Red Line.

The Hogan campaign declined to comment on Moore’s role in the Senate race.

Moore, a popular surrogate for Democratic candidates around the nation who spoke in a prime-time slot at the party’s convention last month, has the approval of 64% of Maryland voters — 6 percentage points higher than a similar poll in February, according to a statewide poll by the Annapolis-based Gonzales Research & Media Services. The poll said Moore’s rating was the highest for a Democratic Maryland governor in almost 40 years.

But if Hogan were to win in November, “it would be hard for analysts to not sort of wonder if that was, in some way, a commentary from voters on Moore’s leadership or some sort of expression that they miss Hogan and his approach to governing,” said Todd Eberly, an associate political science professor at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

“Folks view both Moore and Alsobrooks as rising stars and future leaders in the party, and if she were to lose, that weakens both of them in that respect,” Eberly said. “The party wants to have these young, dynamic future leaders.”

The Unity First PAC was created in April, according to Federal Election Commission records.

It released its first ad Friday recounting Hogan’s 2022 veto of a measure allowing nurse practitioners and other nonphysician medical professionals to perform abortions in Maryland. The Democratic-controlled General Assembly overrode his veto. Hogan has since said following the May primary that he supports codifying abortion rights in federal law.

The ad is for digital platforms, but the PAC says it will also be buying ads for traditional television.

The PAC had raised a relatively small amount — $160,000 — as of June 30, but that was before the scheduled fundraiser to be hosted by Moore. The PAC declined to disclose the event’s date or other information about it.

The PAC will air ads “on digital platforms, CTV, television, and invest in youth engagement efforts,” it told The Sun. It said it will emphasize targeting young voters and is focused “on maintaining a majority in the U.S. Senate and ensuring that Maryland has two Democratic senators representing the Free State come November.”

Super PACs, which independently spend money on TV advertising and other campaign messaging, have the ability to swing close elections because they can raise unlimited sums. They are prohibited from coordinating with the campaigns they support or oppose.

In February, a pro-Hogan super PAC called “Maryland’s Future” launched. It was seeded March 6 with $10 million from major Republican donor Kenneth Griffin, head of the Citadel LLC hedge fund.

In 2018, Hogan became the first Republican to be reelected Maryland governor since Theodore McKeldin in 1954. He did it in part by presenting himself as a pragmatic businessman and divorcing himself from Trump, who was then the president.

Now Hogan is trying to become the first Republican elected to the Senate from Maryland since Charles Mathias in 1980.

Moore endorsed Alsobrooks in October 2023, seven months before she defeated Rep. David Trone to win the Democratic Senate nomination. He said in Thursday’s interview that her positions were preferable to Hogan’s on abortion rights, transportation issues, combating gun violence and other issues.

“Listen guys, we’re just getting started,” Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor, told Alsobrooks’ supporters after her May 14 victory. “Tonight, we won the battle. Tomorrow, we wage the war — and we’re not losing. There is too much at stake.”

Alsobrooks, who would be the state’s first Black senator, had endorsed Moore early as well, a few months ahead of the July 2022 primary.

“This race is going to require resources and support,” Moore told The Sun. “I’m happy to do whatever that I can do to make sure that Angela wins. I plan on being active.”

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. scored a pair of legal victories Friday in the battleground states of North Carolina and Michigan, and a setback in Wisconsin, in his quest to get his name off of the ballots in some states after he suspended his campaign and endorsed former President Donald Trump.

North Carolina’s intermediate-level Court of Appeals issued an order granting Kennedy’s request to halt the mailing of ballots that included his name, upending plans in the state just as officials were about to begin sending out the nation’s first absentee ballots for the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The court — a three-judge panel ruling unanimously — also told a trial judge to order the State Board of Elections to distribute ballots without Kennedy’s name on them. No legal explanation was given.

In Michigan, its intermediate-level Court of Appeals ruled that Kennedy should be removed from the ballot, reversing a decision made earlier this week by a lower court judge.

And in Wisconsin, a Dane County circuit court judge denied Kennedy’s request for a temporary restraining order to put on hold the state elections commission’s decision to keep him on the ballot.

“A matter of such consequence deserves a full development of the record with appropriate briefing by all sides,” Judge Stephen Ehlke wrote. He set a scheduling conference for Wednesday, a week before the deadline for the printing of ballots.

In separate statements, a Kennedy attorney praised the North Carolina and Michigan rulings, saying they uphold state elections laws and support ballot integrity by ensuring no one must vote for a candidate no longer running in their state.

A favorable outcome for Kennedy could assist Trump’s efforts to win North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin.

North Carolina law required the first absentee ballots to be mailed or transmitted to those already asking for them no later than 60 days before the general election, making Friday the deadline. The process of reprinting and assembling ballot packages likely would take more than two weeks, state attorneys have said.

The State Board of Elections formally asked the state Supreme Court late Friday to reverse the Court of Appeals decision. State lawyers asked the justices to act quickly before adjustments to the ballots ordered earlier Friday is complete — likely in a few days.

Kennedy, the nominee of the We The People party in North Carolina, had sued last week to get off the state’s ballots after he suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump. But the Democratic majority on the State Board of Elections rejected the request, saying it was too late in the process of printing ballots and coding tabulation machines. Kennedy then sued.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Rebecca Holt on Thursday denied Kennedy’s effort to keep his name off ballots, prompting his appeal. In the meantime, Holt had told election officials to hold back sending absentee ballots until noon Friday.

More than 132,500 people — military and overseas workers and in-state civilian residents — have requested North Carolina absentee ballots so far, the State Board of Elections said.

In an email, state board Executive Director Karen Brinson Bell told election directors in all 100 counties to preserve current ballots and coding in case rulings revert to keeping Kennedy on the ballot. More than 2.9 million absentee and in-person ballots with Kennedy’s name on them have been printed so far. Counties would have to pay for the cost of reprinting ballots.

With Friday’s deadline not met, North Carolina election officials still are faced with meeting a federal law requiring absentee ballots go to military and overseas voters by Sept. 21. They may try to seek a waiver if new ballots can’t be produced in time.

Friday’s ruling in North Carolina didn’t include the names of judges who considered Kennedy’s request — the court releases the names after 90 days. The court has 15 judges — 11 registered Republicans and four Democrats. Names usually have been withheld from such orders to discourage “judge shopping,” or purposefully seeking out a judge who’s likely to rule in your favor, the court has said.

Kennedy sued Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Aug. 30 to get off the ballot. He filed suit in Wisconsin on Wednesday.

Friday’s ruling from Michigan said that while Kennedy’s request was made close to the deadline to give notice to local election officials, it wasn’t so unreasonable as to deny relief to him. Benson’s office will appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court, a spokesperson said.

__

Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Lansing, Michigan, and Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has charged a Russian-born U.S. citizen and former adviser to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign with working for a sanctioned Russian state television network and laundering the proceeds.

Indictments announced Thursday allege that Dimitri Simes and his wife received over $1 million dollars and a personal car and driver in exchange for work they did for Russia’s Channel One since June 2022. The network was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2022 over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Simes, 76, and his wife, Anastasia Simes, have a home in Huntly, Virginia, and are believed to be in Russia.

“These defendants allegedly violated sanctions that were put in place in response to Russia’s illegal aggression in Ukraine,” U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves said in a statement announcing the charges. “Such violations harm our national security interests — a fact that Dimitri Simes, with the deep experience he gained in national affairs after fleeing the Soviet Union and becoming a U.S. citizen, should have uniquely appreciated.”

The indictments come at a time of renewed concern about Russian efforts to meddle with the upcoming U.S. election using online disinformation and propaganda. On Wednesday federal authorities announced charges against two employees of the Russian media organization RT accused of covertly funding a Tennessee company that produced pro-Russian content.

Simes and the Washington think tank he led, the Center for the National Interest, figured prominently in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential ties to the Trump campaign.

The report chronicles interactions that the Soviet-born Simes, who immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s, had with assorted figures in Trump’s orbit, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Before one such meeting, according to the Mueller report, Simes sent Kushner a letter detailing potential talking points for Trump about Russia and also passed along derogatory information about Bill Clinton that was then forwarded to other representatives of the campaign.

Simes’s think tank, which was founded by former President Richard Nixon, helped arrange a foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington at which Simes introduced Trump, according to the report. Among those present was Sergei Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador to the U.S.

Simes was never charged with any crime in relation to the investigation.

After the report was released, Simes defended himself in an interview in The Washington Post: “I did not see anything in the Mueller report that in any way that would indicate any questionable activity on my part or on the center’s part.”

A second indictment alleges that Anastasia Simes, 55, received funds from sanctioned Russian businessman Alexander Udodov. Udodov was sanctioned last year for his support for the Russian government. He is the former brother-in-law of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and has been linked to business dealings with both of them. Udodov also has been investigated for money laundering.

It was not immediately clear if either defendant had a lawyer who could speak on their behalf. An attorney who previously represented Simes said he was no longer representing him. The Trump campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment Thursday.

In an interview with The New York Times before the charges were announced, Simes, who appears regularly on Channel One, defended the work he was doing.

“I assumed that what I was saying on Russian TV would not be to the liking of the Biden administration, but I also assumed that as long as it was just my opinion and was presented as such, it was not something for which I could be prosecuted,” he told the newspaper.

Hogan maintains the kind of broad popularity that he enjoyed during his two terms as governor, and while a fifth of Democrats say they will vote for him, he’d need to pull in a larger share of them in a state packed with Democrats to win in November, according to poll director Patrick Gonzales.

“For a Republican to win statewide in Maryland it always comes down to basic mathematics,” Gonzales wrote in a statement with the results of his statewide poll. “Can Hogan snatch away 30% of the Democratic vote to secure victory on November 5th?”

The poll of 820 likely voters was conducted Aug. 24 through Aug. 30 by the Annapolis-based Gonzales Research & Media Services. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

It surveyed voters across Maryland just after the Democratic National Convention, where Alsobrooks had a primetime speaking slot as a close ally of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

It follows another recent poll of voters mostly aged 50 or more by Impact Research and Fabrizio Ward that found the race to be a dead heat in that age group, which is more likely to vote, with similar signs that Hogan would need to sustain his performance as Alsobrooks becomes more known to voters through ads over the final two months of the race.

According to the Gonzales poll, 40% of voters view the Democratic Prince George’s County executive favorably while 34% do not recognize her name.

A decade after Hogan first became governor, nearly everyone has an opinion of him. Half of all voters view him favorably while 19% view him unfavorably and 29% are neutral. His appeal is similar among Democrats, Republicans and independents, or when broken down by race and gender, according to the poll.

In the head-to-head matchup, Alsobrooks leads 46% to 41% with 11% undecided, the poll found.

About 82% of Republicans said they would back Hogan, which is 2 percentage points higher than former Republican President Donald Trump among Maryland Republicans surveyed in the same poll for the presidential race.

Hogan also leads among independent voters, 41% to 31%. His 21% support from Democrats is “not bad,” though Hogan would need to perform about 10 percentage points higher among Democrats to win, Gonzales said.

Hogan is aiming to become the first Maryland Republican elected to the U.S. Senate since 1980, and the outcome of the race could determine which party holds the majority in the narrowly divided Senate.

The winner will succeed retiring Democratic U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man arrested last week at a Pennsylvania rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had hoped to hang a banner to protest Trump’s policies, Johnstown’s police chief said Tuesday.

Authorities announced that misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest were filed against Stephen A. Weiss, 36, of Pittsburgh, who was taken into custody at Friday’s Trump rally.

Johnstown Police Chief Richard Pritchard said investigators do not know what the banner said because arena staff apparently discarded it. He said it was made from a bed sheet and that Weiss told a detective that he does not believe in Trump’s policies.

Pritchard said Weiss faked a foot injury and concealed a tube of glue in a metal crutch.

Weiss declined comment when reached by phone Tuesday, saying he was seeking legal advice.

The arrest affidavit by a Johnstown police detective said Weiss “ran onto the arena floor, jumped onto the media stage (and) began to yell towards the main stage where President Trump was speaking.” Weiss allegedly would not release himself from steel barricade fencing “and force had to be used,” police said in the charging document.

A man who accompanied Weiss to the rally told police he was unaware of Weiss’ plan, Pritchard said. The second man was not charged, the chief said.

Weiss also was charged with disrupting a public meeting, a misdemeanor. The Secret Service questioned Weiss on Friday and he was released later that night. He has a court hearing scheduled for Oct. 9.

A Trump campaign spokesman offered no immediate comment Tuesday.

The disruption occurred shortly after Trump criticized major media outlets for what he said was unfavorable coverage.

As Weiss was led away, the former president told the crowd: “Is there anywhere that’s more fun to be than a Trump rally?”

There has been heightened scrutiny of security at Trump rallies since a gunman fired at him, grazing his ear, during an outdoor rally in July in Butler, Pennsylvania. Security at political events has been noticeably tighter since then.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Friday said he will vote no on a Florida ballot measure that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban, a day after he seemed to indicate he would vote in favor of the measure.

Trump has said he thinks Florida’s ban is a mistake and said in an interview with Fox News Channel on Friday, “I think six weeks, you need more time.” But then he said, “at the same time, the Democrats are radical,” and he repeated false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions and said that he opposed allowing abortions up until nine months.

“So I’ll be voting no for that reason,” said Trump, who is registered to vote at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

The Florida ballot measure would legalize abortion until fetal viability, a term used by health care providers to describe whether a pregnancy is expected to continue developing normally or whether a fetus might survive outside the uterus. It’s generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks, which is about six months.

Trump drew backlash from abortion opponents who support him when he seemed to signal in another interview on Thursday that he would vote in favor of the ballot measure and repeal the six week ban when he said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

Amid the blowback his campaign quickly issued a statement saying that Trump had not actually said how he would vote but “simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.”

Trump has held multiple conflicting positions on abortion over the years. After briefly considering backing a potential 15-week ban on the procedure nationwide, he announced in April that regulating abortion should be left to the states.

In the months since, he has repeatedly taken credit for his role in overturning Roe and called it “a beautiful thing to watch” as states set their own restrictions.

“Donald Trump just made his position on abortion very clear: He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies before many women even know they are pregnant,” Vice President Kamala Harris, his Democratic rival, said in a statement responding to Trump’s Friday comments.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to appear Friday at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national nonprofit that has spearheaded efforts to get mentions of LGBTQ+ identity and structural racism out of K-12 classrooms.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris ’ campaign is announcing that it is launching a 50-plus stop “Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour,” as it looks to motivate voters ahead of November. The first stop will be next Tuesday with an event near former President Donald Trump’s Florida home in Palm Beach.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the Latest:

Walz says Democrats have reclaimed freedom, flags and football

Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz says Democrats, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, are reclaiming issues that they had previously ceded to Republicans, from “freedom” and the American flag to football.

Speaking at a fundraiser in Bethesda, Maryland, Walz told donors that Harris, in her convention speech, “took freedom back for us. She took freedom back.” Referencing patriotic scenes at last week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he added: “They don’t have a monopoly on the flag. We took the damn flag back.”

Walz continued that Democrats were retaking the idea of “family,” as the Harris-Walz ticket says Republicans jeopardize not just abortion access, but potentially fertility care as well.

“You take family back, everybody’s family, every family that they want to have, and what their family looks like is the right one for them,” Walz said. “That’s what got taken back.”

He added: “And this one was just totally me. I took football back, I’m done with them thinking they have it.”

Moms for Liberty get ready for session with Trump

A hotel ballroom in the nation’s capital has transformed into a concert-like atmosphere as supporters of the parents’ rights group Moms for Liberty line dance to pass the time before Trump arrives.

Donning shirts with messages like “Moms for Trump” and “We don’t co-parent with the government,” attendees at the group’s annual gathering are eating buffet desserts, drinking beer and cheering to a cover band playing country hits.

Trump is getting ready to join the group’s co-founder Tiffany Justice for a chat onstage, where they are expected to discuss his vision for the future of U.S. education.

Ahead of his visit, Justice expressed support for Trump’s education platform and noted he was an early signer of the group’s “Parent Pledge” advocating more transparency and parental involvement in decision-making for their children’s education.

Donald Trump moves to halt hush money proceedings, sentencing after asking federal court to step in

Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers moved Friday to halt proceedings in his New York hush money criminal case and postpone next month’s sentencing indefinitely while he attempts to have a federal court intervene and potentially overturn his felony conviction.

In a letter to the judge presiding over the case in state court, Trump’s lawyers asked that he hold off on a decision, slated for Sept. 16, on Trump’s request to overturn the verdict and dismiss the indictment in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity ruling.

They also urged the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, to postpone Trump’s Sept. 18 sentencing indefinitely.

Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork late Thursday asking the U.S. District Court in Manhattan to seize the case from the state court where it was tried. The federal court kicked back that request on Friday on technical grounds, but Trump’s lawyers will have a chance to resubmit it.

▶ Read more about Trump’s attempt to halt his criminal case.

Trump draws attention to Harris’ former antifracking position

During his rally in energy-rich Pennsylvania, Trump made several references to Harris saying that she, while running in the Democratic presidential primary in 2020, supported banning hydraulic fracturing. Though Harris’ campaign says she no longer supports a fracking ban, Trump said he was “exposing how bad it’s going to be in Pennsylvania and our country if we stop doing the fossil fuel thing.”

Man who stormed Trump rally press area is Tased and detained

A man at the Trump rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, stormed into the press area as the former president spoke but was surrounded by police and sheriff’s deputies and was eventually subdued by a Taser.

The altercation came moments after Trump criticized major media outlets for what he said was unfavorable coverage and dismissed CNN as fawning for its interview Thursday with Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.

The man made it over a bicycle rack ringing the media area, and close to where television reporters were watching the rally from a riser before being surrounded.

The crowd cheered as a pack of police led the man away, prompting Trump to declare, “Is there anywhere that’s more fun to be than a Trump rally?” Moments later police handcuffed another man in the crowd and led him out of the arena, though it wasn’t clear if that detention was related to the initial altercation.

▶ Read more about the altercation.

Trump seems to flip on Florida abortion ballot measure

Donald Trump says he will vote no on a Florida ballot measure that would repeal the state’s six-week abortion ban, a day after he seemed to indicate he would vote in favor of the measure.

Trump has said he thinks Florida’s ban is a mistake and said in an interview with Fox News Channel on Friday, “I think six weeks, you need more time.” But then he said, “At the same time, the Democrats are radical,” and he repeated false claims he has frequently made about late-term abortions and said that he opposed allowing abortions up until nine months.

“So I’ll be voting no for that reason,” Trump said.

The Florida ballot measure would legalize abortion until fetal viability, a term used by health care providers to describe whether a pregnancy is expected to continue developing normally or whether a fetus might survive outside the uterus. It’s generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks, which is about six months.

Trump drew backlash from abortion opponents who support him when he seemed to say in another interview on Thursday that he would vote in favor of the ballot measure and repeal the six-week ban when he said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

Amid the blowback, his campaign quickly issued a statement saying that Trump had not actually said how he would vote but “simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.”

Trump responds to critics of his Arlington National Cemetery appearance

Trump lashed out at critics who accuse him of using Arlington National Cemetery for a campaign photo op.

Trump said at a rally in Pennsylvania that he was invited by relatives of Marines who were killed in a terrorist attack as the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan. He said he’s gotten to know the families and they asked to take a photo with him.

“I love those people,” Trump said. “I’m so happy they took pictures of me and them and the tombstone and their lovely son or daughter.”

Trump again blamed the attack and the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal on Biden and Harris.

“Joe Biden killed those young people because he was incompetent,” Trump said. “And then they tell me that I used their graves for public relations services? And I didn’t.”

Trump meets with rapper Anuel AA

Trump has met with Puerto Rican musician Anuel AA, a popular Latin star. Images show the former president and Republican nominee arriving in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and shaking hands with the rapper, who is wearing gold chains and pink sunglasses.

Anuel AA has collaborated with artists such as Shakira, Daddy Yankee, Bad Bunny and Karol G, who he dated until 2021. In 2020, Democrats featured a digital ad with a song from Puerto Rican reggaeton star Bad Bunny.

Latinos make up the nation’s largest minority group — 19.5% of the total population, according to the 2020 census. Trump has vowed to expand his coalition to win over more of the nonwhite voters.

Harris has won the support of influential Latino groups, and her campaign is looking to energize young Latino voters.

Trump campaign pushes mail-in voting, contradicting previous position

Former President Donald Trump is set to address a crowd for more than 4,000 inside the Cambria County War Memorial Arena in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where the 1977 hockey cult classic “Slap Shot” was filmed.

The preprogram has featured elected Republicans and other Trump supporters from around the swing state of Pennsylvania and nationally who repeatedly implored attendees to request mail-in ballots or take advantage of the early voting period.

That’s a message that has at times contradicted Trump himself, who suggesting that voting by mail encouraged fraud in 2020 but now suggests that early and mail-in ballots are trustworthy.

A tumultuous life, a turn toward faith and one man who wonders if it’s time to vote

Decades ago, back when he was a political science major at the University of Southern California, and later in law school, Timothy Walker would vote. Everyone in his family voted for Democrats, so he did, too.

Then his path took a different turn. Cocaine addiction took hold of him and he spent years cycling in and out of drug treatment centers. He lost his home and his job as a marketing executive at a law firm. He never passed the bar exam. Elections came and went, largely unnoticed.

This year is different. He completed a faith-based recovery program at the Los Angeles Mission, a Christian nonprofit that serves homeless people and others in need. He’s been clean now for nearly two years. He has a job again, writing thank-you cards to donors in a small office at the mission.

And for the first time in forty or so years, he’s thinking about voting.

He’s not sure he’ll vote, and won’t say if he’s leaning toward a particular presidential candidate. But he credits his faith with turning around his life, and wants to see that faith in the presidency.

“A Christian in the White House would be moral, ethical, grounded in love, and would want what’s best for humanity — not just for themselves or any particular business,” said Walker, 64.

The two major-party nominees, Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, are both Christian, though neither has made their religious beliefs central to their campaigns.

▶ Read more here.

How Trump and Georgia’s Republican governor made peace, helped by allies anxious about the election

The effort to make the peace between Donald Trump and Georgia’s powerful Republican governor began in a sprawling neo-Victorian mansion in the exclusive Atlanta enclave of Buckhead.

It was at an Aug. 7 fundraiser hosted by former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler that fellow Republican Lindsey Graham approached Gov. Brian Kemp. Graham, the South Carolina senator and longtime confidant of the former president, was already planning to attend the fundraiser.

Now, Graham had a renewed purpose: to try to ease years of tensions between Trump and Kemp that endangered the GOP’s chances in a crucial 2024 battleground.

Graham and Kemp met privately at Loeffler’s house. And over the coming weeks, say Graham and others familiar with the matter, allies of both men arranged the two-part détente that played out publicly last Thursday to the surprise of many political watchers.

▶ Read more here.

Trump seeks to activate his base at Moms for Liberty gathering but risks alienating moderate voters

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is scheduled to appear Friday at the annual gathering of Moms for Liberty, a national nonprofit that has spearheaded efforts to get mentions of LGBTQ+ identity and structural racism out of K-12 classrooms.

In a “fireside chat” conversation in the nation’s capital, the former president will seek to shore up support and enthusiasm among a major part of his base. The bulk of the group’s 130,000-plus members are conservatives who agree with him that parents should have more say in public education and that racial equity programs and transgender accommodations don’t belong in schools.

Yet Trump also will run the risk of alienating more moderate voters, many of whom see Moms for Liberty’s activism as too extreme to be legitimized by a presidential nominee.

▶ Read more here.

The interview: Kamala Harris’ inaugural sit-down was most notable for seeming … ordinary

After avoiding a probing interview by a journalist for the first month of her sudden presidential campaign, Vice President Kamala Harris’ first one Thursday was notable mostly in how routine it seemed.

CNN’s Dana Bash, sitting down with Harris and running mate Tim Walz in a Georgia restaurant, asked her about some issues where she had changed positions, the historical nature of her candidacy, what she would do on her first day as president and whether she’d invite a Republican to be a Cabinet member (yes, she said).

What Bash didn’t ask — and the Democratic nominee didn’t volunteer — is why it took so long to submit to an interview and whether she will do more again as a candidate.

▶ Read more here.

Veterans attending Trump’s Michigan event dismiss reports of altercation at Arlington National Cemetery

Veterans attending Donald Trump’s mid-Michigan event on Thursday largely dismissed reports of an altercation between his campaign and an Arlington National Cemetery official, citing the former president’s past as evidence of his values.

Tom Barrett, a veteran of the Iraq War and Republican candidate for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, said that it was his “understanding that President Trump was invited there by families.”

Barrett shifted focus to criticize the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, stating, “Trump and those families would not have been there if Joe Biden hadn’t led to the absolute direct failure of leadership that allowed 13 of our service members to be killed.”

Rusty L. Smith, a Trump supporter from Albion, Michigan, was unaware of the incident at Arlington National Cemetery but said that he believes Trump “supports veterans wholeheartedly.”

Smith added that he was more offended by the claims Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, made about his service record.

“He wasn’t in the war. He wasn’t in combat. He wore the rank of command sergeant major but that was temporary, and he never completed the process. So he shouldn’t be carrying a coin that says command sergeant major. And he does. And that’s wrong,” said Smith.

Trump calls for universal coverage of IVF treatment with no specifics on how his plan would work

Former President Donald Trump says that, if he wins a second term, he wants to make IVF treatment free for women, but he did not detail how he would fund his plan or precisely how it would work.

“I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said at an event in Michigan. “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.”

IVF treatments are notoriously expensive and can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single round. Many women require multiple rounds and there is no guarantee of success.

▶ Read more here.

Harris defends shifting from some liberal positions in first interview of presidential campaign

Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday defended shifting away from some of her more liberal positions in her first major television interview of her presidential campaign, but insisted her “values have not changed” even as she is “seeking consensus.”

Sitting with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris was asked specifically about her reversals on banning fracking and decriminalizing illegal border crossings, positions she took during her last run for president. She confirmed she does not want to ban fracking, an energy extraction process key to the economy of swing-state Pennsylvania, and said there “should be consequence” for people who cross the border without permission.

“I think the most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed,” Harris said.

▶ Read more here.

Harris’ campaign launches ‘Reproductive Freedom’ bus tour

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is launching a 50-plus stop “Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour,” as it looks to motivate voters ahead of November.

The first stop will be Tuesday with an event near former President Donald Trump’s Florida home in Palm Beach.

“Our campaign is hitting the road to meet voters in their communities, underscore the stakes of this election for reproductive freedom, and present them with the Harris-Walz ticket’s vision to move our country forward, which stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s plans to drag us back,” said Harris-Walz Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez in a statement. “As we crisscross the country, we’ll be driving that contrast home to red and blue voters and independents.”

State Sen. Justin Ready and delegates April Rose and Chris Tomlinson, who represent District 5 in both Carroll and Frederick counties, signed a letter that urges Congress to immediately pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act or SAVE Act, introduced by Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a news release from Ready states.

If passed, the SAVE Act would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 by requiring states to obtain citizenship documentation. The SAVE Act also gives citizens the power to bring civil lawsuits against election officials who fail to obtain documented proof of citizenship.

Ranking Democrats in Congress have testified against the proposed bill, saying it would make it more difficult for citizens to register to vote.

“This is basic common sense, only citizens should be voting in our elections,” Ready stated in the news release. “I appreciate leaders in Congress like Rep. Roy and Rep. Andy Harris (a Maryland Republican representing District 1) who have elevated this major election security concern.”

The three lawmakers join more than 740 other state legislators from around the country who have stated support for the SAVE Act.

“There is no time to waste,” Rose said in the news release. “Early voting is just around the corner, and the SAVE Act would ensure that only American citizens are participating in American elections or on state voter rolls at all.”

Some Republicans have raised claims that non-citizens voted in the 2020 general election. Those theories have been debunked, as no serious evidence has been provided.

“The SAVE Act should be a no-brainer for anyone who cares about preserving the democratic process,” Tomlinson stated in the release. “We urge its quick passage through the House and Senate.”

In Maryland, the deadline to register to vote online or by mail is Oct. 15. Early voting is set for Oct. 24-31, with polls open daily from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Oct. 29 is the deadline to request a mail-in ballot to be delivered by mail; or Nov. 1 if you want to receive your mail-in ballot via email. Election day is Nov. 5. For more information, go to elections.maryland.gov/elections/vote2024/.

The Supreme Court of Maryland took up the two cases after separate Baltimore Circuit Court judges found that each question should not appear on ballots for city voters to consider this fall. Each judge ruled that their respective question was outside the scope of changes that citizens are able to make to the city’s charter. The organizers behind each question collected more than 10,000 signatures from qualified city voters in an effort to place the questions on the ballot, one of two local methods to enact a change to the city’s charter.

The court, which took the matters under consideration, has a short window to rule on both ballot questions. The Maryland State Board of Elections is due to begin the process of printing ballots for the November election on Sept. 6.

The court heard arguments first from Renew Baltimore, a coalition of economists and former city officials who are seeking to slash and cap Baltimore’s property tax rate. The question, which organizers collected more than 23,000 signatures in support of, would nearly halve the city’s property tax rate over seven years, from 2.248% to 1.2%. The Baltimore City Board of Elections notified the group in July that the measure would be stricken from the ballot, arguing that only the mayor and City Council have the power to set the property tax rate.

Circuit Judge Althea M. Handy sided with the board, finding that the ballot question “would take all power and discretion from the City Council and their ability to legislate and determine the tax rate.”

Attorneys for Renew Baltimore argued the proposal is legal because courts have determined that residents can place reasonable limitations on their government’s power to tax by way of charter amendments. The group postulates the tax break would boost the city’s population, thus increasing the number of taxpayers and making up for a projected multimillion-dollar reduction in city revenue.

Chief Justice Matthew J. Fader asked attorneys for the group about the possibility that revenue may not go up as projected. “If that prediction is incorrect and revenue goes down, you will have significantly reduced the discretion of the council because they won’t be able to raise the tax rates,” he said.

“The mayor and City Council will still have tons of discretion to adjust the funds,” argued Constantine Themelis, an attorney for Renew. Themelis said city leaders would have the option to further lower tax rates.

In fiscal year 2023, Baltimore brought in roughly $3.6 billion of revenue, almost 30% of which — about $1 billion — came from the property tax, according to the city’s annual audited report. Renew Baltimore’s critics argue its proposal would cut city revenue by one-quarter and require dramatically slashing city services.

A 1990 appellate decision at the center of the election board’s argument distinguished between voters placing a cap on a legislature’s ability to set a tax rate and rolling back the tax rate. In that case, appeals judges determined that a charter amendment could be used to set a cap, but not to roll back the rate, according to court filings. Thomas Chapman, an attorney for the Baltimore City Board of Elections, argued Renew’s proposal would effectively set the tax rate via a cap.

“If you cap the rate and they’re not able to generate enough revenue, doesn’t that tie the city’s hands?” asked Justice Angela M. Eaves.

“There is no reliable evidence to support that the city is going to be unable to do that,” Themelis replied. He dismissed a filing from Baltimore finance officials arguing the cut would be catastrophic to the city’s budget, and instead pointed to a report from Sage Policy Group in support of the effort. Anirban Basu, chairman and CEO of Sage, is one of Renew’s primary backers.

Judges also heard arguments related to a ballot question commonly known as the Baby Bonus which would pay city parents $1,000 upon the arrival of a new child. The question, sponsored by the Maryland Child Alliance, is designed to alleviate childhood poverty.

In the case of the Baby Bonus, it was the city that sued to have the question removed from the ballot, arguing that it exceeds the authority of citizens. The Baltimore City Board of Elections had previously approved the question to appear on ballots. Baltimore Circuit Judge John Stanley Nugent sided with the city earlier this month, granting an injunction.

Attorneys for the Maryland Child Alliance and the Baltimore City Board of Elections, which is a party to the case, argued that the city would maintain discretion to make decisions about how to implement the Baby Bonus. The proposal would require payments to new parents, but it would allow city officials to determine instances in which a nonbiological parent might be eligible, argued Chapman, representing the election board. The council could also weigh how a person’s residency is determined and the method that would be used to pay new parents, he said.

Fader said the details left to be fleshed out by the ballot question seemed more administrative than policy-setting.

“[The argument is] it’s putting the decision-making into the charter but it’s not,” Fader said. “It’s putting the decision made by the voters into the charter.”

Attorney Thomas Webb, representing the city, argued that citizen charter amendments are designed to propose structural changes to government, not to legislate, which is the job of the City Council.

Attorney Mark Stichel, representing the Maryland Child Alliance, said the group was willing to strike the specific $1,000 requirement, leaving a policy that a payment be made to new parents.

Chapman, who reviews all proposed ballot questions on behalf of the Baltimore City Board of Elections before they are placed on the ballot, asked the court during his final remarks to establish a clear test for whether a ballot question complies with Maryland’s constitution.

“Our highest interest here is having a clear and administrable rule for what counts as proper charter material, both for the sake of our own operations and reducing litigation and also for the sake of petition sponsors who should be able to know before they go into a burdensome and time-consuming petition drive whether their petition is lawful,” he said.