The Latest: Harris campaigns in Wisconsin and Trump in Michigan in battle for ‘blue wall’ states

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is opening a two-day stay in Wisconsin and Michigan, and Republican candidate Donald Trump will be in Michigan on Thursday as the two candidates grapple for wins in the “blue wall” battleground states, which also include Pennsylvania.

Liz Cheney, one of Trump’s fiercest Republican antagonists, joined Harris at a campaign event in Wisconsin on Thursday aimed at reaching out to moderate voters and rattling the former president. Cheney was the top Republican on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, earning Trump’s disdain and effectively exiling herself from her own party.

Cheney lost her Wyoming seat to a Trump-endorsed candidate two years ago and she endorsed Harris last month. The two women will appear together in a historic white schoolhouse in Ripon, where a series of meetings held in 1854 to oppose slavery’s expansion led to the birth of the Republican Party.

Harris’ visit to Wisconsin comes one day after a federal judge unsealed a 165-page court filing outlining prosecutors’ case against Trump for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy and obstruction.

Harris on Friday will hold a campaign rally in Flint, Michigan, continuing her tour of states that have been critical to Democratic victories. Trump won Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan in 2016, and Joe Biden won them in 2020.

Trump on Thursday will hold a rally in Saginaw County, a bellwether in the center of the state.

The Republican candidate has ramped up his focus on Michigan, holding two rallies there less than a week ago. In 2020, Biden’s win in Saginaw County by a slim 303 votes contributed to his victory in the state.

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Here’s the latest:

Liz Cheney, one of Donald Trump’s fiercest Republican antagonists, joined Kamala Harris on Thursday at the site in Wisconsin where the modern Republican Party was born, as the Democratic vice president aims to win over moderate voters and rattle the former president.

The daugher of a fomer Republican vice president, Cheney was the top GOP lawmaker on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, earning Trump’s disdain and effectively exiling herself from her own party.

“Violence does not and must never determine who rules us. Voters do,” Cheney told the crowd as she recounted Trump refusing to act as he watched the violent attack on television.

“He praised the rioters. He did not condemn them. That’s who Donald Trump is,” Cheney said.

She lost her Wyoming seat to a Trump-endorsed candidate two years ago and she endorsed Harris, the Democratic nominee, last month.

“I know that she loves our country and I know she will be a president for all Americans,” Cheney said of Harris, noting that despite being conservative she is “honored to join her in this urgent cause.”

Democrat Steve Martin, a professor of communication and political science at Ripon College, stood on a hill overlooking the Harris event in Wisconsin before it was set to start. He said he’s feeling “nervous’ about the election and added, “It’s a little closer than it should be.”

Martin, 50, is supporting Harris, but said the surrounding area of Ripon, where he’s lived for over two decades, is politically mixed.

“I think that the Harris campaign team is really doing the right things to try to reach out to different parts of the country,” Martin said. “Hillary never came here. Clinton never visited Wisconsin once.” Clinton never visited the state during the 2016 general election, but she did campaign in Wisconsin before the Democratic primary that year.

Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp will make his first appearance on Friday with former President Donald Trump since the two clashed over the outcome of the 2020 election, jointly surveying damage from Hurricane Helene.

Trump falsely claimed he won Georgia and the 2020 election despite actually losing to Democrat Joe Biden. He became enraged with Kemp and publicly feuded with him after the governor refused to help stop certification of Biden’s victory.

With Georgia one of the swing states that could decide the election, however, Kemp opted to endorse Trump last month.

He and the former president will appear together when Trump visits the community of Evans, Georgia. Trump will also receive a briefing on response efforts to Helene and give a speech, according to his campaign.

In a video posted on Instagram, the rocker wore a flannel shirt and was sitting in what looked like a diner, saying into the camera, “I’m supporting Kamala Harris for president.”

He talked about fundamental freedoms making America great and added, “Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime. His disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president ever again”

Springsteen said Trump “doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, it’s history or what it means to be deeply American.” By contrast, he said Harris wants “to grow our economy in a way that benefits all” before adding with an apologetic chuckle, “Not just the few, like me, on top.”

Springsteen said a more unified and equal country is “the America I’ve been consistently writing about for 55 years.”

Springsteen has in the past campaigned for Democrats, giving concerts and narrating commercials — including for Joe Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in 2016.

In his video for the vice president, he noted that he respects others’ choices but said, “I’ve only got one vote and it’s one of the most precious possessions that I have. That’s why on Nov 5 I’ll be casting my vote for Kamala Harris.”

Speaking from the ruins of a Georgia pecan farm ravaged by Helene, President Joe Biden said Thursday “in moments like this it’s time to put politics aside.”

Biden has been touring scenes of devastation following the storm that has killed at least 200 across the Southeast. He said he hoped the U.S. could “break down this rabid partisanship.” It’s the government’s job, he said, “to help as many people as we can.”

When asked whether the supplemental funding request for disaster funding could wait, he said it could not. “It can’t wait,” he said. “People need help now.”

A former Colorado county clerk has been sentenced to nine years behind bars for leading a scheme to breach voting system data in her county.

Judge Matthew Barrett handed down the sentence Thursday after a jury found Tina Peters guilty of most charges against her in August.

Peters was the first election official to be charged with a security breach amid the rampant false claims that widespread fraud altered the outcome of the 2020 presidential race. Peters was convicted for allowing a county security card to be misused to give a man access to the Mesa County election system and for deceiving other officials about that person’s identity.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice confirmed Thursday that its criminal investigators are looking into the removal of Wausau’s only absentee ballot drop box by the mayor last month.

The Marathon County district attorney had asked for assistance from DOJ about the incident in the small city about 200 miles northwest of Milwaukee. The department’s Division of Criminal Investigation will take the lead, said the agency’s spokesperson Gillian Drummond.

Mayor Doug Diny removed the city’s drop box on Sept. 22 without consulting with the clerk, who has the authority under a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling to make one available. They are not mandatory in the state.

Diny, who ran as a conservative and opponent of drop boxes in the nonpartisan mayor’s race, has said he wanted the city council to discuss whether to use a drop box. The council is scheduled to discuss the issue at a meeting Tuesday.

The mayor turned the box back over to the clerk, who had it installed and bolted to the ground on Monday.

Former President Donald Trump raised $160 million for his campaign in September and entered October with $283 million in the bank for the campaign’s final sprint, his aides announced.

The September fundraising figure, which Trump’s campaign released on Wednesday, is up from the $130 million he reported raising in August. It covers money raised by Trump’s campaign and affiliated committees.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival, has not yet released her fundraising numbers for the full month, but numbers previously released suggest she’ll exceeded Trump’s haul.

Harris aides have said she raised $55 million during a fundraising swing through California last weekend alone, which included stops in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The prior weekend, she raised $27 million at a packed New York City fundraiser, which was at the time her largest fundraising haul since she took over at the top of the ticket from President Joe Biden, according to a Harris campaign aide.

The crowd at a small university in Michigan awaiting Trump’s speech was notably subdued, with rows of empty seats in a gymnasium shortly before he was set to speak. The university is located in Saginaw County, which Biden flipped by a few hundred votes in 2020.

Josh Faulk, 38, traveled from nearby Bay City to attend his first Trump rally this cycle. Faulk said he wanted to attend Thursday’s rally because of the “excitement behind the candidate” and to show Trump “support like he does for us.”

“It’s more exciting for me to be around people that aren’t so combative and angry,” said Faulk. “You know? I mean, we’re in a great, happy, wonderful place.”

Melania Trump revealed her support for abortion rights Thursday ahead of the release of her upcoming memoir, exposing a stark contrast with her husband, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, on the crucial election issue.

In a video posted to her X account Thursday morning, the former first lady defended women’s “individual freedoms” to do what they want with their body — a position at odds with much of the Republican Party and her own husband, who has struggled to find a consistent message on abortion while wedged between anti-abortion supporters within his base and the majority of Americans who support abortion rights.

“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard,” she said in the video. “Without a doubt, there is no room for compromise when it comes to this essential right that all women possess from birth: individual freedom. What does ‘my body, my choice’ really mean?”

The video appears to confirm excerpts of her self-titled memoir reported by The Guardian on Wednesday.

Melania Trump has rarely publicly expressed her personal political views and has been largely absent from the campaign trail. But in her memoir, set to be released publicly next Tuesday, she argues that the decision to end a pregnancy should be left to a woman and her doctor, “free from any intervention of pressure from the government,” according to the published excerpts.

President Joe Biden said Thursday that he wasn’t concerned the 2024 presidential race between Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump was close

“It always gets this close,” he said to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House on his way to visit storm-ravaged Georgia and Florida. “She’s gonna do fine,” he said of his vice president.

Biden was also asked how Harris’ running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz did in the vice presidential debate.

“The other guy lost the debate,” Biden said. “He misrepresented everything.”

The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene has brought climate change to the forefront of the presidential campaign after the issue lingered on the margins for months.

Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Georgia Wednesday to see hard-hit areas, two days after her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, was in the state and criticized the federal response to the storm, which has killed at least 180 people. Thousands of people in the Carolinas still lack running water, cellphone service and electricity.

President Joe Biden toured some of the hardest-hit areas by helicopter on Wednesday. Biden, who has frequently been called on to survey damage and console victims after tornadoes, wildfires, tropical storms and other natural disasters, traveled to the Carolinas to get a closer look at the hurricane devastation. He is expected to visit Georgia and Florida later this week.