August 30, 2024, presidential campaign news | CNN Politics (2024)

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Special counsel Jack Smith and former President Donald Trump.

Former President Donald Trump and special counsel Jack Smith are at odds over how the election subversion case in Washington, DC, should move forward, according to a status report filed late Friday.

However, neither side is rushing to get to trial before the election — or even before the end of the year.

Smith is not offering firm dates for the next phase of the case, while Trump is recommending a schedule for certain pretrial disputes that would carry through until at least the beginning of 2025.

Trump’s proposed schedule, however, says that it could take until fall 2025 to work through “additional proceedings, if necessary.”

Former President Donald Trump observes a changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldierat the Arlington National Cemetery on August 26.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday defendedhis visit to Arlington National Cemeterywith the families of the 13 service members killed in Afghanistan three years ago.

Speaking at the Moms for Liberty annual convention in Washington, DC, he recounted the Arlington visit as a “beautiful” moment and appeared to call it “disgusting” that he was criticized for taking pictures of the gravesites for his campaign.

Of his Democratic opponent, Trump suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris wouldn’t sit for any other media interviews and accused her of not wanting to debate him. He again attacked Harris over her CNN interview, specifically over her answer on fracking.

He mentioned Harris’attack against President Joe Bidenover desegregation busing during a 2020 Democratic presidential primary debate, calling Harris the “nastiest person” to Biden.

He accused Harris of lying about working at McDonald’s. He also joked that he would send Harris a MAGA hat, “because she loves everything we’re doing.”

“So we’re going to send her a nice, bright red Make America Great Again hat,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump on Friday argued that America’s schools and children are “suffering greatly” due to illegal immigration and undocumented students who don’t speak English.

For the bulk of the event, held by the conservative education activist group, Trump largely focused on illegal immigration, repeating claims he often makes at campaign rallies that migrants are arriving to the US from “mental institutions” and “insane asylums.”

There is no evidence to support Trump’s claims.

Asked what he would do on the federal level to protect parental rights and “education freedom,” Trump did not get into specifics, but said “no men in women’s sports” and called gender-affirming surgeries “crazy.”

Asked about meeting with victims’ families of crimes allegedly committed by undocumented migrants, Trump raised the case of22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, before pivoting to discussing the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and then moving onto talking about eliminating ISIS.

Latino superstars Anuel AA and Justin Quiles threw their support behind former President Donald Trump onstage at his rally Friday in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Anuel AA, whose real name is Emmanuel Gazmey Santiago, is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and pioneer of the Latin trap movement. Quiles is Latin Grammy-award-winning Puerto Rican singer.

Donning a red “Make America Great Again” hat, Anuel AA took the stage to praise Trump as “the best president the world has seen.”

It is important to note that the American citizens living in Puerto Rico cannot vote in a general election and do not play a direct role in electing a president.

Quiles also used his time onstage to express support for the former president.

Trump met Anuel AA earlier Friday at the Johnstown tarmac once his plane landed.

“Do you know who the hell they are?” Trump asked his rally-goers before hastily bringing the musicians on stage, noting they had to come on the stage fast because he said he wasn’t sure the crowd knows “who the hell you are.”

He added, “But it’s good for the Puerto Rican vote. Every Puerto Rican is gonna vote for Trump right now. We’ll take it.”

Donald Trump is joined on stage by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, on August 23.

Former President Donald Trump seemed to nod at Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a rally in Pennsylvania by vowing to rid the environment of toxic chemicals and “get them out of our bodies” and food supply.

Trump’s comment comes after receiving the endorsem*nt from Kennedy, who suspended his presidential campaign earlier this month. Kennedy’s advocacy for uncontaminated air, water and food was a core theme of his campaign and his environmental activism prior to entering politics. Kennedy also suggested that contaminants in air, water and food sources could be contributing to higher rates of chronic diseases and has, at times, embraced conspiracy theories about the sources of pollutants and their affects on people.

Prior to his remarks on toxic chemicals, Trump acknowledged the endorsem*nts of former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Kennedy, who have been added toTrump’s transition team.

“They’re both great people. They were Democrats, as you probably know, and they felt very strongly about the endorsem*nt, and I feel very happy to get it. Every day, we are welcoming more Republicans, Independents, traditional Democrats and old-fashioned liberals,” Trump said.

Former President Donald Trump said Pennsylvania voters are not going to believe that Vice President Kamala Harris now supports fracking, akey industryin the Commonwealth after she previously said she would ban it.

As a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris opposed fracking — a position that could have proven politically damaging in Pennsylvania, where it’s a huge employer. Now, she says, she supports it.

“As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking,” she toldCNN’s Dana Bash in an interview on Thursday.

Trump, who described Harris as a Marxist and referring to her as “Comrade Kamala” or “Comrade Kamala Harris” multiple more times during his remarks, said her performance during CNN’s exclusive interview showed someone who is “not a president.”

“People are seeing who she is. All you have to do is watch yesterday. Give me a break. That’s not a president. That’s not a president. That’s not a president, and we can’t let that person destroy our country,” he said.

Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, on August 29.

Vice President Kamala Harris slammed Donald Trump for saying he’s voting “no” on a Florida abortion amendment on Friday. Trump made the comment during a Fox New interview earlier today.

Some context: A “no” vote wouldpave the wayfor a 6-week abortion ban, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last year, to stay in effect. The amendment would protect the right to have an abortion until a fetus is viable, which many experts believe is around 23 or 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Under the Biden administration, Harris has been leading the charge on the issue of reproductive rights. In April, Harristraveled to Floridajust hours after the controversial ban went into effect and warned another Trump term would mean “more bans, more suffering, less freedom.”

In the statement released on Friday, Harris echoed the sentiment and vowed to restore reproductive rights if she is elected president.

Arizona Republicans on Friday honored the lives of the 13 service members killed in the US withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago and criticized the Biden-Harris administration over its handling of the “completely avoidable tragic event.”

Crane accused and criticized the Biden-Harris administration for leaving behind military equipment, US intelligence and allies who helped US troops in Afghanistan, while accusing the administration of not vetting the Afghan people they evacuated.

Arizona GOP chairwoman Gina Swoboda also addressed thecriticism over Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery,taking aim at the media, “Does anyone in the media think that they are qualified to lecture a family member who has lost their loved one fighting for this country?”

Swoboda, Crane and two combat veterans argued that Trump would support the US military while arguing that Harris lacks the leadership to be commander in chief.

Donald Trump arrives at a campaign event in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on August 30.

Former President Donald Trump refused to commit to vetoing a federal abortion ban when asked about the issue by Fox News on Friday.

When told that his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said on Sunday that he thought Trumpwouldveto a ban, the former president said: “What’s happening is that you’re never going to have to do it because it’s being done by the states. The states are voting,and the people are now getting a chance to vote and this is the way everybody wanted it.”

This weekend, Vance said that he thought Trump would veto a federal abortion ban.

“I think it’d be very clear he would not support it,” Vance said on Meet the Press. “I mean, if you’re not supporting it, as the President of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it.”

Pressed again, Vance said, “I think he would. He said that explicitly that he would.”

In April, Trump said he would not sign a federal abortion ban if it passed Congress.

Former President Donald Trump told Fox News he will be voting “no” on the Florida abortion amendment.

A “no” vote wouldpave the wayfor a 6-week abortion ban, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last year. As CNN hasrepeatedly noted, it’s illegal in every state to kill a baby after it is born.

The Florida amendment reads, “No law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient’s health, as determined by the patient’s healthcare provider. This amendment does not change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion.”

Most experts say fetal viability occurs at around 23-24 weeks of gestation.

Trump has previously called the six-week limit a “terrible mistake.”

Here’s more background: Trump, whose ever-evolving views on reproductive health have traversed every side of the debate, has long expressed concerns about the political fallout from the 2022 Supreme Court decision to end the constitutional right to an abortion. Though he has sought credit for installing the three conservative justices that tipped the court to overturnRoe v. Wade, Trump earlier this year said future questions about access should be left to the states.

Donald Trump’s legal team has asked New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan to refrain from issuing decisions on “any substantive motions” — including Trump’s motion to set aside his criminal conviction — until the former president’s new request to move the case to federal court plays out.

The letter cites Special Counsel Jack Smith’s move this week tosecure a new indictmentagainst Trump in the election interference case that tailors the allegations in light of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision. That new indictment, Trump’s lawyers say, helps Trump’s argument for a dismissal in the New York case.

It’s the first time that Trump’s lawyers have used that new indictment in their numerous ongoing appeals in the New York case.

Merchan said he would issue a ruling on the week of September 16 on Trump’s motion to vacate the New York hush money conviction in the wake of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling. Remember, that ruling from the Supreme Court said that Trump has broad sweeping immunity for “official acts” while he was in office.

Trump also filed a petition Thursday asking a federal court in Manhattan to remove his state criminal case from its jurisdiction, considering the Supreme Court ruling. The filing in federal court also says the state court cannot sentence Trump until that federal request for removal is litigated.

Trump asked Merchan to delay the sentencing earlier this month — a request DA Alvin Bragg’s office did not oppose — and the judge was expected to rule on that as soon as next week, according to CNN’s reporting. In the latest letter, Trump’s attorneys say “there is no good reason” to sentence him before Election Day, asking Merchan to delay the sentencing currently scheduled for September 18 indefinitely.

TOPSHOT - Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a campaign rally at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 20.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will mark Labor Day by deliveringremarks at the Milwaukee Area Labor Council’s Laborfest 2024 event on Monday.

His remarks in Milwaukee, the third trip to battlegroundWisconsin for Vice President Harris’ running mate, will also be the third organized labor gathering he has addressed since joining the Democratic ticket earlier this month.

He spoke at a firefighters union convention in Boston earlier this week after addressing a government employees union in Los Angeles earlier this month.

Also on Monday, Harris and President Joe Bidenwill campaign together in Pittsburgh, the White House previously announced.

It will mark the first time the president and vice president are appearing jointly in a battleground state sinceHarrismoved to the top of the Democratic ticket.

CNN’s Arlette Saenz contributed reporting to this post.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Alro Steel on Thursday in Michigan.

Months afterDonald Trumpdeclared the debate over reproductive rights in America settled, the former president is still straining to navigate the new era ofpost-Roe politicsthat he helped create.

The latest display of his unease came Thursday, when the former president infuriated religious conservatives with an inartful attempt to sidestep questions about a Florida referendum that will decide the future of abortion access in his home state. The campaign quickly clarified in a statement that Trump had not, in fact, picked a side.

Later that day, surrounded by steel and machinery inside a Michigan warehouse, Trump abruptly detoured from remarks on manufacturing to offer women a new incentive to vote for him: a promise for universal coverage of in vitro fertilization if he is elected.

But senators in his own party — including his running mate, JD Vance— had defeated a bill with a similar provision earlier this summer.

Trump, whose ever-evolving views on reproductive health have traversed every side of the debate, has long expressed concerns about the political fallout from the 2022 Supreme Court decision to end the constitutional right to an abortion.

Though he has sought credit for installing the three conservative justices that tipped the court to overturnRoe v. Wade, Trump earlier this year said future questions about access should be left to the states.

But that position, intended to end the conversation, has done anything but, and Trump has strained to appease activists in his party as he stares down an electorate that remains overwhelmingly troubled by the current state of abortion access in many GOP-led states.

A new survey from Quinnipiac University found 55% of voters think Vice President Kamala Harris is better equipped to tackle the issue, compared with 38% for Trump. Meanwhile, nearly 7 in 10 voters focused on abortion favor Harris over Trump, according to a recentCBS News poll conducted by YouGov.

Read more.

Days after Donald Trump expressed opposition to mail-in voting in an interview, there is an electronic sign inside the arena where the former president is set to take the stage encouraging attendees to “secure a mail-in ballot today.”

Trump will speak later today at the 1st Summit Arena in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The sign also highlights key dates that Pennsylvania voters should remember.

The messaging aligns with Republicans’ ongoing effort to encourage voters in the Keystone State to utilize mail-in ballots. The Republican National Committee and Trump’s campaign touted a new website this week that provides easy access to Pennsylvania’s election resources, allowing voters to request mail-in or absentee ballots directly.

But the same day the campaign introduced the website,swampthevote.com, Trump directly opposed mail-in voting during an interview with Dr. Phil, saying, “Mail-in ballots shouldn’t be allowed.”

“What we have to do is get control, and then we have to change it, and it’s a very simple change: same-day voting, everybody votes,” Trump said.

Read CNN’s fact checks on Trump’s claims of mail fraud.

Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz attacked former President Donald Trump in a social media post on Friday, blaming him for access to fertility treatments being in jeopardy.

Walz, who conceived through fertility treatments, criticized Trump after he proposed to make in vitro fertilization treatments paid for by either government or insurance companies.

Her statement comes as Democrats seek to reframe the conversation around fertility treatments on legal protections, following Trump’s pledge to make the treatments more affordable.

Walz campaigned in Virginia on Friday, where she reiterated the importance of protecting fertility treatments, an issue she and her husband, Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz, have focused on since he joined Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign earlier this month.

In campaign speeches, Tim Walz had characterized the issue of access to IVF treatment as “personal” to him and his family while sharing the story of his and his wife’s journey to conceiving their two children. Gwen Walz clarifiedin a statement to CNNearlier this month that she did not use in vitro fertilization, but a different fertility treatment called intrauterine insemination. Like IVF, it’s a common fertility procedure used by couplestrying toconceive.

A senior embryologist at West Coast Fertility Centers in Fountain Valley, California, adds media to petri dishes containing embryos, before freezing the embryos, on February 29.

Democrats are seeking to center the conversation on access to in vitro fertilization around the legal protections for the treatment after former President Donald Trump pledged to have either government or insurance companies cover the costs of treatments if he’s reelected.

On a Harris campaign call with reporters on Friday, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Trump’s promise to have fertility treatments paid for is “just smoke and mirrors” without a commitment to protect the treatments from legal threats. She pointed to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that deemed that frozen embryos are children, jeopardizing the legality of IVF treatments before Alabama’s Republican governor signed a law protecting IVF access in the state after Trump said he supports the treatment.

She also cited a Senate bill to codify access to IVF nationwide that was blocked by the GOP in June and a House GOP bill that seeks to legally define life as beginning at the moment of conception or fertilization to draw the contrast on protections for reproductive health care.

When asked specifically if she feels Democrats should mandate insurance companies or create a government program to provide fertility treatments, Warren sidestepped the question, insisting “the threshold question” is around legal protections for fertility treatments.

Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, echoed Warren’s argument, calling Trump’s proposal a “distraction” from the “underlying issue.”She said that the bigger question is “should IVF be legal, period. One party and one ticket supports that, and one does not.”

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is continuing to needle former President Donald Trump’s campaign on the topic of muted vs unmuted microphones at the upcoming presidential debate hosted by ABC News.

Remember: CNN haspreviously reportedthatABC intends to mute Trump and Kamala’s microphones while their opponent speaks during the debate, according to a copy of the formal rules obtained by CNN.

Fulks’ comments mirror those made earlier by the Harris campaign’s senior adviser Brian Fallon, who posted on X that Trump’s “handlers don’t trust him to spar live with VP Harris.”

During an event in Virginia on Monday, Trump said of the microphones, “We agreed to the same rules, I don’t know, doesn’t matter to me, I’d rather have it probably on, but the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time.”

But in a post on his Truth Social platform the next day, Trump added, “The Rules will be the same as the last CNN Debate, which seemed to work out well for everyone except, perhaps, Crooked Joe Biden.”

ABC’s rules, which werefirstshared with the campaigns last week, largely mirror the format ofCNN’s presidential debatein June between Trump and President Joe Biden, during which the candidates’ microphones were muted as their opponent spoke, a rule the Biden campaign had insisted on but something the Harris campaign had sought to change in recent days.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris are interviewed by CNN’s Dana Bash at Kim’s Cafe in Savannah, Georgia, on August 29

Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with CNN’s Dana Bash for herfirst major TV interviewsince becoming the Democrats’ presidential nominee.

The interview was conducted in Savannah on the sidelines of a bus tour through the key Sun Belt state of Georgia and alongside her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Here are some of the key lines:

What would she do on Day One in the White House?

After a broad claim about focusing on themiddle class, Harris made a larger point about moving on from Donald Trump.

Pushed by Bash about her specific plans, Harris said she would focus on her“opportunity economy” planto bring down the cost of everyday goods and give parents of newborns a $6,000 tax credit “to help them buy a car seat, to help them buy baby clothes, a crib.” She also mentionedhousing affordability.

But what about people who feel groceries were less expensive and housing more affordable when Trump was president?

Read more of the key lines from Harris’ interview.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.

In a survey conducted entirely after the Democratic National Convention,Quinnipiac University’s poll finds Vice President Kamala Harris at 49% among likely voters nationwide, with former President Donald Trump at 47% — a result within the poll’s margin of sampling error, suggesting no clear leader in the race.

The survey is the first from Quinnipiac that reports the results among likely voters, and is not directly comparable to past polling from the school.

Nationally, the poll finds Harris and Trump tied at 45% each among political independents. There is a wide gender gap in the results, with women splitting 58% to 37% in Harris’ favor, while men break the other direction, 57% Trump to 39% Harris.

Harris holds advantages among younger voters (52% to 39% among those age 18-34) and Black voters (75% to 20%), but those leads are narrower than President Joe Biden’s performance nationally among 2020 voters, according to exit polls.

Trump and Harris are also tied among Hispanic voters in the poll, with 48% support for each of them.

Here are some other takeaways:

The poll was conducted August 23-27 by phone among a random national sample of 1,611 likely voters, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally at the Enmarket Arena August 29 in Savannah, Georgia.

The Harris campaign has announced the launch of a bus tour to advocate for women’s reproductive rights, which remains a key issue ahead of November.

The “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour will kick off on Tuesday in Palm Beach, Florida, and include Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez and CNN Senior Political Commentator Ana Navarro.

The bus tour will make at least 50 stops in key battleground states to highlight the contrasts between Harris and Donald Trump’s stance on reproductive freedom. It will feature elected officials, celebrities and Republicans for the Harris-Walz ticket.

According to the campaign, the speakers will make the case that Harris and Gov. Tim Walz will restore the protections of Roe.

Harris has become the Biden administration’s foremost voice on reproductive rights, both in public events and behind the scenes. Earlier this year she kicked off the “reproductive freedoms tour” to focus on an issue the former Biden campaign believed would be critical to mobilizing voters in November.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors national summit at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown on June 30, 2023 in Philadelphia.

Donald Trump, in his third White House bid, has sought to reignite the cultural battles over education that erupted throughout the country in recent years, and on Friday, he will appear before the conservative parents group that helped spark the fight.

Trump’s visit toMoms for Liberty’s annual convention in Washington is the latest sign of the organization’s clout in the Republican Party just three years into its formation. The former president’s K-12 agenda closely adheres to Moms for Liberty’s intense efforts to ban the teaching and discussion of certain topics related tosexuality, gender and race.

But as Moms for Liberty’s influence in the GOP has expanded, several high-profile controversies and the group’s recent mixed record at the ballot box have raised doubts about the organization’s effectiveness, if not the palatability of its platform.

The latest setback came last week in Florida, home of the group’s first chapter. The Sunshine State is where the group racked up several early wins, pulling school boards to the right. It teamed up with Gov. Ron DeSantis to expand parental rights and embolden districts to remove more books from school libraries, especially those with LGBTQ characters and themes, sparking both national backlash and copycat legislation in other states.

But in local elections there Tuesday, of the 14 candidates backed by the organization, just three won outright. Five lost, and six are headed to runoff elections later this fall. Several of the defeats came in deeply red parts of the state and in counties where Moms for Liberty founding leaders hailed from.

Those who defeated Moms for Liberty-approved candidates said their victories represented a rejection of the politicalization of schools that burst out of Florida.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance reacted to CNN’s interview with Kamala Harris, saying she “hasn’t governed” in a way that lifts people up in her time as vice president.

What Harris said: In the Trump era, Harris said Thursday, “there is some suggestion — warped, I believe it to be — that the measure of the strength of a leader is who you beat down, instead of where I believe most Americans are, which is to believe that the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.”

Vance claimed that Harris wanted to shut Trump out from social media, while the Trump camp believes in having an open conversation with people regardless of agreement or disagreement.

Vance backs Trump’s “jokes”: CNN’s John Berman pointed to Trump’s social media posts reposting QAnon statements, as well as misogynistic posts about Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “That’s the kind of open discussion that you think is lifting people up?” Berman asked.

Vance dodged the specifics and said Trump’s campaign and social media posts show a “guy with an agenda to lower prices and bring back American prosperity and a political candidate who isn’t stodgy who likes to have some fun and likes to tell some jokes.”

Vance has recently criticized Harris on the campaign trail for laughing and dancing, while claiming excitement surrounding her campaign was manufactured by the media.

“They say she’s having fun, but while she’s having fun, Americans are suffering under her policies,” Vance said in Michigan in mid-August.

This post has been updated with more of Vance’s remarks.

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said, “of course,” a second Trump administration would include a Democrat in response to Kamala Harris telling CNN she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet if elected.

Gabbard, a former Democratic representative, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who recently suspended his own presidential campaign as an Independent, have both been added to Donald Trump’s transition team. Both endorsed Trump in recent days.

Gabbard made a dramatic exit from the Democratic Party in 2022, while Kennedy first challenged Joe Biden in the Democratic Party’s 2024 presidential primary beforerunning as an independent candidate.

The Ohio senator would not commit to appointing Kennedy to a possible Trump Cabinet but said he hopes “that Bobby plays some role in answering some of the big questions and we’ll see what that looks like.”

JD Vance speaks with CNN on Friday.

Donald Trump believes states should decide their policies on the issue of abortion, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance told CNN, adding that the former president has been consistent in this position in the “post-Roe world.”

Trump “wants the national government, that he intends to lead, to be focused on national issues like inflation, the cost of housing and the wide open southern border. He wants states to make their own abortion policy, and that would be his position for the remainder of the campaign and the remainder of his presidency,” the Ohio senator said.

Remember: Over the past two decades, Trump’s public statements on one of the most divisive American cultural issueshave shifted back and forth.

Pressed by CNN’s John Berman about inconsistencies in Trump’s abortion views, Vance said the former president “wants voters to make these decisions” after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

Vance also discussed how Trump will vote in November on Amendment 4 in Florida, which would protect the right of women to have an abortion until a fetus is viable. Florida currently bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Trump told NBC News Thursday he would be “voting that we need more than six weeks.” In a statement, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the former president “has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.”

Vance echoed this, telling CNN that Trump “is simply saying he doesn’t like six weeks. He obviously has said he doesn’t like late-term abortion, and I think he will make an announcement on what he actually wants to do on the Florida law in particular.”

As Trump said Thursday he will implement a policy as president that would pay forin vitro fertilization treatments, Vance did not say exactly how they plan to pay for it.

This post has been updated with additional remarks from Vance.

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walzsat down exclusively with CNNThursday for her first interview since ascending to the top of the Democratic ticket.

Just days afteraccepting the nominationat the Democratic National Convention, Harris answered wide-ranging questions from CNN’s Dana Bash, including on her economic and border policies, attacks on her race from former President Donald Trump and the call from President Joe Biden to tell her he was withdrawing from the race.

Read the full transcript of the exclusive interview

CNN’s Dana Bash interviews Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at Kim’s Cafe in Savannah, Georgia, on August 29

Here are some takeaways from the Democratic ticket’s interview with CNN’s Dana Bash:

Flip-flop on fracking: In 2019, Kamala Harrisopposed fracking — a position that could have proven politically damaging in Pennsylvania, where it’s a huge employer. Now, she says, she supports it.

Progressives have opposed fracking due to concerns about climate change. But under the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that Harris cast the tie-breaking vote to pass in the Senate and President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022, fracking has expanded.

Harris said she had already changed her position on fracking in 2020,when she said that Biden “will not end fracking.”

Appointing a Republican to the Cabinet: Asked if she would appoint a Republican to her Cabinet, Harris said: “Yes, I would.”

“No one in particular,” she said. “We have 68 days to go in this election, so I’m not putting the cart before the horse. But I would.”

Refusing to engage in identity politics: Last month, Donald Trump questioned Harris’ racial identity,suggesting she’d previously identified as South Asian but “happened to turn Black” for political purposes.

Shaking her head, Harrissaid Trump’s remark is part of his “same old tired playbook.”

“Next question, please,” she said.

Her refusal to comment further aligns with her campaign’s strategy to avoid leaning into identity politics following Trump’s remarks. It could also indicate how Harris might handle challenges to her race and gender during her first debate with Trump next month.

Biden’s call: Harris said she was having breakfast with her family on July 21 when the phone rang.

“It was Joe Biden, and he told me what he had decided to do,” Harris said, in her most extensive remarks yet on how she learned the presidentwas endinghisreelectionbid andendorsingher to replace him at the top of the Democratic ticket.

“I asked him, ‘Are you sure?’ and he said: ‘Yes,’” Harris recalled. “My first thought was not about me, to be honest with you. My first thought was about him.”

Blaming Trump on border security: Trump has made attacking the Biden administration’s handling of the US-Mexico border a signature issue, but Harris said Trump bears much of the blame for the border security problems he bemoans.

She pointed to his opposition to the bipartisan border security bill hashed out by a group of lawmakers. Asked if she would push that bill if she is elected president, Harris said: “I would make sure that it would come to my desk and I would sign it.”

She also said she does not support decriminalizing illegally crossing the border into the United States, reversing another position she took in 2019.

Walz says he owns his mistakes: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, was pressed on false claims he’s made, including in a 2018 video in which he refers to “weapons of war, that I carried in war.”

Though Walz served 24 years in the Army National Guard, he was never in a combat zone. He said he misspoke.

“My wife, the English teacher, told me my grammar’s not always correct,” he said.

Walz had also said in his convention speech that he and his wife used IVF to conceive their children but has since clarified it was a different kind of fertility treatment.

“I certainly own my mistakes when I make them,” he said.

Read the full story.

Kamala Harris showed how she plans to deal with Donald Trump and win the presidency inCNN’s exclusive first interviewwith the vice president since becoming the Democratic nominee, avoiding slips that could slow her momentum.

She preferred sweeping themes and aspirations rather than detailed policy blueprints and declined to explain reversals on issues like immigration and energy fully.

But she was a more deft, disciplined and prepared political figure than she appeared in her short-lived bid for the 2020 Democratic nomination or in accident-prone moments early in her tenure as vice president. Harris smoothly countered questions and follow-ups about her vulnerabilities by pivoting to safer talking points as she failed to do in a damaging interview with NBC in 2021.

Harris also steered clear of any obvious errors that would knock her campaign off track and require her to perform damage control in the vital build-up to her debate showdown with the former president on September 10 in Philadelphia.

And a week after her keynote speech at the Democratic convention expanded on her core argument that it was time to “turn the page” from Trump’s divisiveness, she also refused to be drawn into her Republican rival’s provocations over her racial identity.

She dismissed the issue, telling CNN’s Dana Bash: “Same old tired playbook. Next question, please.” Her response showed that she has no intention of allowing the campaign to be overtaken by questions about race, even though her potential as the first Black woman and Indian American president will form a constant backdrop to the rest of the campaign.

Read the full analysis.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

ABC News intends to mute the microphones of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris while their opponent speaks during an upcoming presidential debate, according to a copy of the rules obtained by CNN — but the Harris campaign is continuing to push back onthe final sticking point.

While the Trump campaign has accepted the rules governing the September 10 matchup, Harris’ campaign said it remains in ongoing discussions with the network about the microphone issue.

Fallon added that the rules sent to the campaigns were “a draft” that both sides must still agree on.

ABC News declined to comment.

Read more about the debate rules.