Joan E Greve

After JD Vance refused to acknowledge Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election during the VP debate last night, one of the former president’s senior advisers doubled down on that stance this morning.

When CNN anchor Jim Acosta asked Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski whether Trump lost the 2020 race, Lewandowski sidestepped the question in much the same manner that Vance did last night.

“Why is this so difficult for the Trump campaign to answer?” Acosta asked. “I mean it’s 2024. Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election? Can you answer that?”

“Jim, I think it’s very simple. The American people are past the 2020 election,” Lewandowski replied. “We can go back and relitigate the 2020 election, or we can look at what we can do to make America better for the everyday Americans who are struggling under Bidenomics.”

Acosta interjected, “But, Corey, it’s not relitigating. It’s just a simple question: did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?”

Lewandowski replied, “Why are we talking about 2020 anymore? [Do] the American people care about the 2020 election more, or do they care about being able to put food on their table?”

Acosta and Lewandowski then sparred over the definition of “widespread fraud”, as Trump has presented no evidence of widespread fraud in the 2020 race. Ammar Moussa, a spokesperson for Kamala Harris’ campaign, said of the exchange: “Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. It shouldn’t be this hard to say.”

Trump's mass deportations could cost up to $88bn a year, analysis suggests

Lauren Gambino

Implementing Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign could cost the federal government as much as $88b per year on average, according to a new analysis released on Wednesday.

If elected, Trump has vowed to carry out the “largest deportation operation” in US history, but he has offered few concrete details about how he would achieve a campaign of such scale – and at what cost.

“Given that in the modern immigration enforcement era the United States has never deported more than half a million immigrants per year – and many of those have been migrants apprehended trying to enter the US, not just those already living here–any mass deportation proposal raises obvious questions: how, exactly, would the United States possibly carry out the largest law enforcement operation in world history? And at what cost?” ask the authors of the analysis, published by the American Immigration Council, an advocacy group for immigrant rights.

The analysis estimates the costs based on Trump’s pledge to deport the roughly 11 million people living in the US who as of 2022 lacked permanent legal status and faced the possibility of removal. (Trump has suggested the eligible population is as high as 20 million people.)

The largest share of the cost would be spent on building detention camps to arrest, detain, process, and remove immigrants from the US. It would also likely require the government to hire additional law enforcement officers and immigration judges.

In addition to the logistical challenges, the analysis also highlights the impact it would have on the economy, especially sectors like construction and hospitality that employ large numbers of undocumented workers.

“Due to the loss of workers across US industries, we found that mass deportation would reduce the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by 4.2 to 6.8%,” it states. “It would also result in significant reduction in tax revenues for the US government.”

Following last night’s vice-presidential debate where both candidates kept things fairly civil, JD Vance and Tim Walz are set to return to the campaign trail today.

On Wednesday, Vance is set to deliver remarks at a campaign event in Auburn Hills, Michigan at around 1:30pm ET before delivering another set of remarks in Marne, Michigan at 5:30pm ET.

Meanwhile, Vance will kick off a bus tour through central Pennsylvania and will make stops in Harrisburg, Reading, and York where he will be joined by York native senator John Fetterman.

Walz is set to deliver remarks in York at 3pm ET and will join a political engagement with local Latino leaders in Reading at 6pm ET.

Joe Biden has approved a major disaster declaration for the state of Virginia amid the devastating impacts of Hurricane Helene.

On Wednesday, the White House released a statement, saying:

Yesterday, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that a major disaster exists in the Commonwealth of Virginia and ordered Federal aid to supplement Commonwealth and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by Tropical Storm Helene beginning on September 25, 2024, and continuing.

The President’s action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Giles, Grayson, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, and Wythe and the independent city of Galax.

Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.

Federal funding also is available to State and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work in the counties of Bedford, Bland, Buchanan, Carroll, Craig, Dickenson, Giles, Grayson, Montgomery, Pittsylvania, Pulaski, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise, and Wythe and the independent cities of Bristol, Covington, Danville, Galax, Norton, and Radford.”

Harris campaign ad boosts Vance's 'damning non-answer' on Trump election loss

Lauren Gambino

The vice-presidential hopefuls debated for 90 minutes on Tuesday night, but the Harris campaign wants Americans to remember one moment, a split-second reply that Tim Walz called a “damning non-answer”.

Just hours after the primetime event concluded, with viewers split over a winner and analysts praising JD Vance for the more polished performance, the Harris campaign has launched an ad highlighting the moment the Republican refused to say whether Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. (He did.)

During the final moments of the debate, Walz asked Vance to answer the question. Did Trump lose the 2020 election to Joe Biden?

Vance replied that he was “focused on the future”.

“That’s a damning non-answer,” Walz replied.

The ad features that exchange, overlaid with images of the January 6 assault on the US Capitol. It ends with Walz telling viewers: “America, I think you’ve got a really clear choice of who’s going to honor democracy and who’s going to honor Donald Trump.”

According to the Harris campaign, their internal focus group of undecided battleground state voters said the moment was Vance’s worst of the night.

Harris hasn’t centered her campaign around democracy the way Biden had. But the issue still has high salience for voters.

Tim Walz is heading directly from his debate with rival JD Vance in New York last night for the crucial election battleground of Pennsylvania today to begin a bus tour with one of the state’s two Democratic US Senators, John Fetterman.

Walz and Fetterman are starting out in south central Pennsylvania with a rally in the city of York.

York county voted heavily for Donald Trump over Joe Biden in 2020, even as the state flipped from Republican in 2016 to Democratic in 2020.

This is a further case of Dems campaigning in deeply red counties in swing states, hoping that reducing the margin of their likely loss will help to tip the finely-balanced statewide race to their party.

There is no sign that there will be another presidential debate before the election, between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump.

We had the only planned vice-presidential debate last night between the Dems’ Tim Walz and the GOP’s JD Vance.

Now Monday’s 60 Minutes show on CBS will feature an interview solely with Harris, after the network said Trump accepted an invitation and then backed out.

“A 60 Minutes candidate hour will feature only Kamala Harris after former President Donald Trump, who’d previously agreed to be on the show, decided not to participate in the Monday, October 7 special,” CBS reported. CBS pointed out that the show has had the tradition for half a century of inviting the two presidential candidates to sit for interviews as voters head to the polls.

Late last month, Harris accepted an invitation from CNN for a second debate, but Trump declined. The broad consensus is that Harris won the lone debate between her and Trump.

There was no clear winner of last night’s vice-presidential debate among registered voters quizzed in another snap poll last night, this one conducted for CNN by polling firm SSRS.

After both Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance had a constructive debate, CNN reported that their viewers who were polled thought better of both candidates after the debate than they had before.

Vance, who has donned a controversial, right-wing platform and persona on the campaign trail, was very measured last night, conciliatory at times. Walz was less cheery than his rally self, but more consistent with his usual reputation of being a “joyful warrior” exuding reason.

CNN reported: “Among debate watchers, Walz remains the candidate who’s seen more positively and as more in touch with their needs and vision for the country. Vance …boosted his standing … outperforming expectations and gaining ground on the share who perceive him as qualified. Both men, the poll finds, are viewed by a majority of debate watchers as qualified to assume the presidency if needed.”

Crucially, though, the cable TV network added that almost no respondents felt the need to change the way they’ve decided to vote after watching the debate.

In a snap poll after the vice-presidential debate, voters declared there was no decisive winner and were split on who performed better, the Democrats’ Tim Walz or the Republicans’ JD Vance, Politico reports this morning.

“Asked who won Tuesday’s debate, voters were split 50-50 over whether it was JD Vance or Tim Walz, according to a POLITICO/Focaldata snap poll of likely voters conducted just after the two faced off in a studio in New York City,” the political news site said.

It added: “The dead-heat results are a fitting reflection of the country’s hyper-polarized politics — particularly as it enters the final stretch of the closest presidential election in years.”

Democrats mostly thought Walz won and GOP-ers mostly thought Vance won. However, there was in interesting divergence when it came to independents.

“Walz had a commanding advantage with independents, 58 percent of whom sided with the Minnesota governor while 42 percent gave Vance the edge,” the site said.

Iran launched at least 180 missiles into Israel on Tuesday, the latest in a series of rapidly escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its Arab allies that threatens to push the Middle East closer to a regionwide war.

White House National Security adviser Jake Sullivan called Iran’s missile attack a “significant escalation,” although he said it was ultimately “defeated and ineffective,” in part because of assistance from the US military in shooting down some of the inbound missiles.

President Joe Biden said his administration is “fully supportive” of Israel and that he’s in “active discussion” with aides about what the appropriate response should be to Tehran.