Live updates: VP debate tonight to pit Vance, Walz in head-to-head ahead of 2024 election (2024)

Trump says he expects Vance to go on the attack on immigration tonight

Trump falsely claimed Biden had refused to get on the phone with Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, about aid for Hurricane Helene. Biden said “He’s lying, and the governor told him he was lying.” The White House and Kemp say the two leaders spoke the night before. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports for "TODAY."

Trump touted several of his economic proposals in an opinion piece published in Newsweek this morning, outlining how he intends to “Make America Affordable Again,” a tagline he often uses at the end of his rally speeches.

The former president suggested that if elected, he will incentivize companies that have left the U.S. to return.

“German car companies can become American car companies,” Trump wrote. “We can beat China in electronic production. Manufacturers that have left us will come sprinting back to our shores.”

Trump repeated his previous calls to impose massive tariffs on foreign-made products if he wins a second term in office, saying “we will use the hundreds of billions of tariff dollars to benefit American citizens.” He also repeated his promises to enact a 15% corporate tax rate, cut energy prices in half and set up “special zones on federal land with ultra-low taxes and regulations for Americans.”

Several surrogates for the Harris campaign are expected to be in the spin room, where candidates or their campaign representatives speak to the media, at the vice presidential debate tonight, the campaign announced.

They include Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Mark Kelly of Arizona and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico; Colorado Gov. Jared Polis; Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker; Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett; and Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison.

Biden and Harris are closely monitoring the strike by tens of thousands of longshoremen on major ports along the East Coast and Gulf Coast, the White House said in a statement, adding that the president directed his team to “convey his message directly to both sides that they need to be at the table and negotiating in good faith — fairly and quickly.”

The White House said Biden asked chief of staff Jeff Zients and economic adviser Lael Brainard to convene board members of the United States Maritime Alliance, which represents freight companies and ports, and urged them to resolve the strike “in a way that accounts for the success of these companies in recent years and the invaluable contributions" of International Longshoremen’s Association workers.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and Brainard have also been in contact with the both groups.

Biden and Harris are also “closely monitoring potential supply chain impacts” of the strike, the White House said, providing agency assessments that found the strike would have no or a limited immediate effect on the availability of food, fuels and medicines.

Biden has directed his supply chain disruptions task force to meet daily and prepare for any potential disruptions, the White House said. The president also asked his team to continue communicating with labor, industry, state and local officials, ocean carriers, and rail and trucking companies.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is hitting the campaign trail in battleground Wisconsin today, where he'll speak at an event in the same city as Trump.

Both Emhoff and Trump will be in Milwaukee for campaign events.

A trial kicks off today over new election rules approved by the Georgia State Elections Board in August.

The Elections Board passed two rules giving local officials new powers to investigate election results, a move critics said conflicted with state law and could lay the groundwork for delaying — or even blocking — certification of the election.

The Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Party of Georgia and several individuals including county board members sued the elections board in late August, asking the court to pause the rules to the extent they conflict with the law.

A coalition of reproductive rights organizations is unleashing a $15 million advertising campaign backing abortion rights as Arizona faces a key ballot measure on the issue this fall.

The state constitutional amendment put forward by Arizona for Abortion Access, known as Proposition 139, would create a “fundamental right” to receive abortion care up until fetal viability (or about the 24th week of pregnancy), with exceptions after that point if a health care professional decides it’s needed to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”

Under current Arizona law, abortion is legal up until the 15th week of pregnancy, with an exception after that to save the mother’s life or “or for which a delay will create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.” The current abortion law has no exceptions after 15 weeks in cases of rape or incest.

Read the full story here.

Reporting from Washington

Harris is launching a seven-figure ad blitz about health care targeting Trump’s calls to replace the Affordable Care Act with a mystery plan he hasn’t yet released.

The ad campaign, first reported by NBC News, is aimed at elevating the issue and capitalizing on what polling says is a weakness for Trump. The new 60-second spot features Trump saying during his face-to-face debate with Harris that he has “concepts of a plan” to remake the U.S. health care system.

“You have no plan,” Harris tells Trump in the ad while touting her calls for protecting the ACA (or “Obamacare”) and extending the Biden-Harris policies that expanded subsidies to buy coverage and capped the cost of insulin for seniors at $35 per month.

Read the full story here.

Jimmy Carter has accomplished somethingno other former U.S. presidenthas — he notched a 100th birthday.

Carter, who served one term in the White House, hit the milestone today at his home in Plains, Georgia, where he has been receiving hospice care for the last 19 months.

The proud Democrat, who has grown increasingly weaker in recent months, has told relatives he wants to hang on until Oct. 15, when early voting begins in Georgia, so he can cast his ballot in the 2024 presidential election.

“I’m only trying to make it to vote for Kamala Harris,” Carter said, his grandson Jason Carter toldThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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The central clash in the pivotal Senate race in Montana — and the fight for control of the Senate itself — was on full display last night as Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and Republican Tim Sheehy faced off in a heated debate.

Like other Republican challengers around the country, Sheehy, a former Navy SEAL, painted Tester as liberal cog in the national Democratic Party machine, unable to address concerns about high costs and border security in a state that Trump has twice won easily.

Like other vulnerable Senate Democrats, Tester tried to make it personal — touting his bipartisan bona fides, highlighting his own connections to his red-leaning state and suggesting his opponent cannot be trusted.

Read the full story here.

Trump will be in Wisconsin to speak to voters ahead of Vance's debate tonight with Walz.

Trump, who is ramping up his campaigning with Election Day just over a month away, will begin October by doubling up on events.

He starts the day in Wanaukee, speaking at a metal solutions manufacturing company, before making his way to Milwaukee in the evening.

When Vance and Walz take the stage in New York City for tonight’s vice presidential debate, it will be their first in-person meeting.

But Vance and Walz have been nipping at each other from afar for weeks, playing the customary role of attack dog on opposing tickets.

The stakes for their 90-minute debate, hosted by CBS News and scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET, are unusually high for an undercard clash. The race between Harris and Trump is tight nationally and in the battleground states, according to recent polling. Given that Trump hasn’t agreed to a second showdown with Harris, Vance vs. Walz could very well be the last debate before Election Day.

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