Election 2024 Latest: Trump and Harris work to expand their coalitions in final weeks of election

[September 24, 2024]  By The Associated Press

The lines that have long defined each party’s policy priorities are blurring as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump seek to expand their coalitions in the final weeks of a fiercely competitive presidential election. The contest may well hinge on how many disaffected suburban Republicans vote for Harris and how much of Democrats’ traditional base — African Americans, Latinos, young people and labor union members — migrates to Trump.

That’s prompting both candidates to take stances that would have once been anathema to their bases, scrambling longtime assumptions about what each party stands for.

Trump traveled to the swing state of Pennsylvania on Monday to speak about his plans to counter U.S. reliance on China with a group led by a loyalist who served as his top intelligence official. The event on Monday focuses on proposals to increase America’s food supply and to protect U.S. farmers. Harris will visit Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

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Here’s the latest:

Trump listens to farmers before raucous Pennsylvania rally

Donald Trump spoke Monday to a small group of farmers in Smithton in rural Pennsylvania, breaking with his usual campaign form by listening more than he talked.

The former president asked questions and offered a few jokes. But he mostly listened quietly as farmers from the area explained their economic difficulties. Trump also stopped at a market and gave a woman checking out a $100 bill to help pay for groceries — further showing off a softer side.

He reverted back to form during a raucous evening event in Indiana, Pennsylvania, sharply criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris and suggesting without evidence that this year’s contest would be the last election should he lose.

“I don’t like anybody that doesn’t like me, I’ll be honest,” he said before adding, “sounds childish” but “that’s the way it is ... call it a personality defect.”

Walz slams Trump's ‘drill baby, drill’ catchphrase, warns about climate change

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told a group of about 30 donors focused on climate change that Trump’s energy catchphrase to “drill baby, drill” is “not a solution to things, and the public knows that it’s a cheap, easy thing.”

The Democratic vice presidential nominee, speaking at a midtown Manhattan hotel to an audience that included former presidential candidate Tom Steyer and Hollywood producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, called climate change an “existential threat” but also “an incredible opportunity to grow our economy.”

Walz cited farmers who use their land to generate wind energy in addition to growing crops.

He also praised Harris for casting the tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate on the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s 2022 law to flight climate change.

Walz is scheduled to speak at a series of fundraisers in New York on Monday.

Vance and Walz pick stand-ins to prepare for vice presidential debate

Doppelgangers have been selected to help prepare for the vice presidential debate next week.

Walz’s mock debates will feature Pete Buttigieg, the U.S. transportation secretary, playing JD Vance.

Meanwhile, Vance’s preparations include Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer in the role of Walz.

The choices were disclosed by people with knowledge of the candidates’ preparations

Walz and Vance are scheduled to face off on Oct. 1.

Harris reaches agreement on transition planning with Biden administration

Vice President Kamala Harris’ transition team has reached an agreement with the General Services Administration to accept pre-election support from the federal government to prepare for her potential presidency.

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Ed Fry Arena, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in Indiana, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The agency, which is required by law to offer office space, technology support and other resources to major party nominees, posted the agreement to its website on Monday. The signed memorandum, which governs IT, record-keeping and ethics policies, is dated Sept. 19.

There was no word on whether former President Donald Trump’s team would reach an agreement before Election Day. But the agency said it was prepared to provide services to the Trump transition team once an agreement is executed and services are accepted.

Transition planning is well under way across the federal government in advance of the Jan. 20, 2025 handoff by President Joe Biden to Trump or Harris.

Last week, Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zientshosted a meeting of the White House Transition Coordinating Committee — the government’s senior-most transition planning group — and for the first time this year included Harris and Trump representatives. And agencies are preparing detailed briefing memos on their activities to share with the eventual winner’s team.

Trump is set to travel to Pennsylvania stops focused on countering China

Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail Monday and expected to travel to the swing state of Pennsylvania to speak about his plans to counter the U.S. reliance on China with a group led by a loyalist who served as his top intelligence official.

The former president and Republican presidential nominee is attending the 3 p.m. Eastern event in a rural area outside of Pittsburgh hosted by the Protecting America Initiative, which is led by Richard Grenell, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence, and former New York congressman Lee Zeldin.

Trump has embraced tariffs as he tries to appeal to working-class voters who oppose free-trade deals and the outsourcing of factories and jobs. The event on Monday focuses on proposals to increase America’s food supply and to protect U.S. farmers.

The National Agricultural Law Center estimates 24 states ban or limit foreigners without residency and foreign businesses or governments from owning private farmland. The issue emerged after a Chinese billionaire bought more than 130,000 acres near a U.S. Air Force base in Texas and another Chinese company sought to build a corn plant near an Air Force base in North Dakota.

Later on Monday, Trump is expected to rally voters at 7 p.m. Eastern in Indiana, Pennsylvania, a town east of Pittsburgh, where he is hoping conservative, white working-class voters help him pull ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris, his opponent. Harris is also visiting Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

Man accused in apparent assassination attempt left note indicating he intended to kill Trump

The man accused in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note saying that he intended to kill the former president and maintained in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the Justice Department said Monday.

The new allegations were included in a detention memo filed by the Justice Department. During a hearing Monday, U.S. Magistrate Ryon McCabe agreed with the Justice Department that 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh should remain locked up as the case moves forward, saying the “weight of the evidence against the defendant is strong."

The note, addressed “Dear World,” was dropped off at the home of an unidentified person who contacted federal authorities following the arrest last Sunday of Ryan Wesley Routh. The box, which also contained ammunition, a metal pipe and other items, was not opened by the person until after Routh was taken into custody.

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