Welcome to the online version of From the policy deskevening bulletin that brings you the latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill from the NBC News Politics team.
In today’s edition, senior national political reporter Henry Gomez and campaign contributor Alec Hernández examine how JD Vance has often stepped in to explain away Donald Trump’s controversial statements. Plus, senior political analyst Chuck Todd examines Trump and Kamala Harris’ closing messages.
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Vance emerges as Trump’s chief explainer
By Henry J. Gomez and Alec Hernández
JD Vance’s regular willingness to take questions from mainstream news outlets has added an unofficial role to his role as Donald Trump’s running mate: chief explainer.
In interviews, press conferences and speaking with reporters on the campaign plane, Vance often finds himself defending himself, paraphrasing, or finding “well, actually” whatever provocative comment Trump made the latest.
At that time Trump questioned is vice president kamala harris really black? “I think she was hinting at the essential chameleon nature of Kamala Harris,” Vance said.
When Trump condemned DetroitBattle in a majority-Black city in Michigan? Trump, Vance said, “just spoke candidly about Detroit being left behind.”
As Trump singled out a Democratic congressman, he “issued a caveat.”the enemy within” and raised fears of chaos that justified military intervention on election day? “The enemy within us,” Vance suggested, “is the people that Kamala Harris allowed into this country unchecked, unchecked and undocumented.”
All Republicans — from top Trump surrogates to down-ballot candidates in local races — are inevitably forced to respond to Trump’s most inflammatory rhetoric. Many GOP members of Congress have made a ritual in recent years of dodging questions about his recent speeches, claiming ignorance of what he said.
But Vance is the most prominent player in the campaign after Trump. His willingness to criticize Trump follows a documented turn from Trump critic to loyalist. Eight years ago, he was a memoirist often called upon to analyze and lick Trump’s appeal to voters in the tough manufacturing towns where he grew up.
Today, it’s up to Vance to explain what Trump really means as he sees it, or to put a finer point on something shocking or baffling that Trump says without ever straying from his ethos of never apologizing in the first place.
Harris’ team and some Trump allies expect him to declare victory early
By Matt Dixon, Yamiche Alcindor and Carol E. Lee
Kamala Harris, her campaign team and some of Donald Trump’s allies say they expect the former president to quickly declare an election night victory — even if the outcome is still undecided in key states.
Between the time it takes to process mail-in ballots and handle provisional ballots in some battleground states, votes won’t be fully counted on election night. Predictions about who will win a close presidential race may not come for days, as they did in the 2020 election.
NBC News spoke to four Trump allies, all of whom speculated that it might be the former president He is preparing to shoot the 2020 repeat and quickly announce the winner on election night, which is not yet certain. All of the sources said they had no direct knowledge that this was Trump’s official campaign plan.
Others noted that this November could be different because he is surrounded by a new layer of top aides who have not pushed him to make such a statement.
Seven Harris aides — and the vice president himself — said they are preparing if Trump actually says he won early or legally challenges the results if he loses.
“Of course,” Harris He said this in an interview with NBC News On Tuesday, when asked if he was ready to deal with Trump, who claimed an early victory for his campaign. “This is Donald Trump, a man who tried to overturn a free and fair election, still defies the will of the people, incited a violent mob to attack the United States Capitol, and was attacked by 140 law enforcement agencies.”
Here’s how Harris and Trump make their closing arguments
By Chuck Todd
Given the tumultuous nature of the Trump era in general and the twists and turns of the 2024 campaign in particular, it’s probably hard to believe we’re in the end game of this historic election cycle, and (knock on wood) it’s ending more normally than anyone else. The campaign involving Donald Trump is over by now.
I admit that the phrase “so far” does a lot of work in the above paragraph – and to be clear, I’m talking about the events that rocked the campaign, Not Trump’s penchant for crude or uncomfortable remarks. Obviously, something unexpected could still happen, but I’m not sure there will be any new developments at this late stage of the race that will drastically affect the vote share of either candidate. But if you’re not ready for the unexpected in politics, then you haven’t been paying attention!
But what was different – until now! — how both campaigns have been semi-, sorta, kind of tentative about this campaign over the past few weeks.
First, the campaigns agree on who the last persuasive voter is: a Republican who dislikes Trump personally but is skeptical of Kamala Harris’ liberal politics, or a Republican-leaning independent.
Both campaigns are sending a message to this voter that Trump is deeply negative about Harris’s politics and hoping to convince those voters that he is really a San Francisco liberal in disguise. Meanwhile, Harris has been harshly negative about Trump’s character and democracy, hoping to convince those voters that he’s out for himself at the potential cost, that he’s mentally weak and that his inability to control his personality is a potential danger to the country.
How strange considering his last days 2016 and 2020 races is over, this 2024 final game feels downright conventional. This campaign is a little more like a competitive race, close to the pre-Trump era. This is less a battle to establish the fundamentals (although that is very important) and more a battle to convince the skeptical undecideds, because even if the undecideds are a small group, they will be decisive.
🗓️ Mark your calendar: As part of his closing argument, Harris plans to perform On Tuesday in Washington, four sources familiar with the preparations confirmed to NBC News.
🗞️ The best stories of the day
- 🔵 Follow Harris: Harris condemned Trump on reports he spoke favorably of Adolf Hitler and called the former president’s recent behavior “more and more shocking.” More →
- 🔵 Harris on the trail, continued: Harris told Telemundo that he is a “pragmatic capitalist” who wants to support Latino entrepreneurs, resisting Trump’s attempts to paint him as a Marxist. More →
- 🔴 Follow Trump: Trump has called Harris “crazy” and “stupid” and questioned whether he has an alcohol or drug problem as he increasingly turns to false personal attacks against his Democratic challenger. More →
- ⚖️ Claim barrage: In the run-up to Election Day, nearly 100 lawsuits, mostly from Republican groups, have been filed that could shape how votes are cast and counted in seven key battleground states. Harris campaign said in his memoirs he is “ready for whatever the other side throws our way.” More →
- 🤝 Power transmission: Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, is sounding the alarm over Trump’s failure to make key deals with the Biden administration for the presidential transition, warning that it could jeopardize the peaceful transfer of power and threaten the American citizen. security. More →
- 📝 Not so fast: The Justice Department has sent a letter to Elon Musk’s super PAC, warning that its $1 million-a-day earnings in battleground states could run afoul of federal law. More →
- 💰 Different blue wall: The nation’s largest network of left-leaning megadonors poured millions into California and New York House primary races to build a get-out-the-vote operation in so many blue states that Democrats didn’t bother to build much political infrastructure. More →
- 🏫 The new kid on campus: The Harris campaign is launching an early voting campaign targeting students on battleground public college campuses. The effort consists of concerts, block parties and tailgates, plus a seven-figure ad buy, mostly focused on social media platforms. More →
- 🗣️ Notable quote: President Joe Biden echoed language Trump has used in the past and said of the former president that “we have to shut him down” and “we’re going to shut him down politically” before appearing caught. More →
- 🎧 Podcast requests: In the first episode of a new podcast hosted by NBA players, former President Barack Obama made a case for endorsing Harris for the presidency, directly imploring young people not to be disheartened by the slow pace of political progress. More →
- Follow live updates from the campaign trail →
That’s all for the Policy Desk for now. If you have feedback – like it or not – send us an email politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com
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