The latest in the 2024 presidential race

Former President Donald Trump sought to blame Vice President Kamala Harris for the hostage crisis after the Israeli Defense Forces recovered the bodies of six hostages in Gaza.?

Harris has been working with President Joe Biden on negotiating a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas — something she reiterated during her speech last month at the Democratic National Convention.

“Desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking,” she said during her speech. “President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination.”

Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke Sunday with the parents of Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin,?who was among the hostages who were killed.

“Doug and I just spoke to Jon and Rachel, Hersh Goldberg-Polin’s parents, to express our condolences following the brutal murder of their son by Hamas terrorists,” the Democratic presidential nominee wrote on X. “My heart breaks for their pain and anguish.”

Sen. Tom Cotton speaks at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 16.

Sen. Tom Cotton said Sunday that he would be open to former President Donald Trump’s costly new IVF proposal even as he raised concerns about how to fund such a measure.?

Trump?said Thursday that if reelected, he would implement a policy to pay for?in vitro fertilization treatments. He did not specify how it would be paid for.

“I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for, or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for, all costs associated with IVF treatment,” the former president said at a campaign event in Michigan.

Meanwhile, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key Senate ally of Trump, said Sunday he wouldn’t support the former president’s proposal, instead proposing a tax credit for families seeking financial assistance with IVF.?

“I think a tax credit for children makes sense, means-tested, and I think let’s look at that concept for people trying to have a child,” the South Carolina Republican?said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Some context: In the months since the Alabama high court’s February ruling that frozen embryos are children, Democrats have?sought to use threats to IVF?to paint Republicans, including Trump, as seeking to restrict access to?reproductive health care. But?Trump has worked to distance himself from the decision, saying shortly after the ruling that he “strongly” supports “the availability of IVF for couples.”

This post and headline have been updated with additional information.

Former President Donald Trump observes a changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on August 26.

Donald Trump on Sunday thanked the Gold Star families who recorded videos defending him, which the former president posted to social media after his controversial appearance last week at Arlington National Cemetery.

The videos Trump posted to Truth Social and X show families of US service members who were killed at the Kabul airport bombing three years ago bashing Vice President Kamala Harris and praising Trump. The videos came as the Trump campaign grapples with the fallout over a confrontation with a cemetery official regarding rules prohibiting political activity on the sacred grounds.

In his Sunday post, Trump also continued attacking Harris — who slammed the former president on Saturday, saying he “is?unable to comprehend anything other than service to himself.”

“Lightweight V.P. Kamala Harris tried turning?it around, because they weren’t there, have never spoken to the families, and have no intention to do so,” Trump said.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 22.

Vice President Kamala Harris holds a narrow lead over former President Donald Trump in a new?national poll from ABC News and Ipsos, with numbers nearly identical to those in a pre-convention poll from ABC/Washington Post/Ipsos.?

Overall, Harris tops Trump 50% to 46% among registered voters in a two-way matchup, about the same as the 49% to 45% race the poll found in early August.

The results suggest a slightly wider lead for Harris among likely voters, 52% Harris to 46% Trump, a finding also similar to the likely voter result pre-convention (51% Harris to 45% Trump).

Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, speaks after a meeting with former President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on January 31.

Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, said his union is waiting to formally endorse a presidential candidate until its members have a chance to meet with Vice President Kamala Harris.?

The president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters told CBS News on Sunday the group is hoping for “the opportunity to sit down with” Harris before it decides whether to endorse her or former President Donald Trump.?

“You don’t hire someone unless you give them an interview. And you know, this is our opportunity to ask her about Teamster-specific issues and also labor issues. So until we have that meeting, you know, obviously we will wait to make that determination,” he continued.?

O’Brien also reiterated his criticism of Trump after he appeared to celebrate the firing of striking workers during a live conversation with Elon Musk, and said he supports the United Auto Workers union filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against Trump.?

“I support anybody that attacks labor, they should be held accountable, and any organization that’s going to hold them accountable,” he said.

Gov. Tim Walz serves ice cream at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights on September 1.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Sunday discussed the balancing act of campaigning for vice president while still serving as governor, crediting a “good team” for helping him do both.

“We appointed three great judges last week in Ramsey County, as you saw. Every night, we go through all of the decision memos and um — meeting with the commissioners. I stay updated throughout the day, and I’m in and out,” he said.

Walz was visiting the Minnesota State Fair, where he greeted supporters, sampled fair food and served ice cream at what he called the best state fair in the country.?He was accompanied by his wife, Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz, and his daughter, Hope.?

Gov. Tim Walz speaks with Rachel Visser, the 71st “Princess Kay of the Milky Way,” as they look at butter sculptures at the Minnesota State Fair in Falcon Heights on September 1.

After sampling pork chop on a stick and serving ice cream, Walz met with the “Princess Kay of the Milky Way,” the winner of the Midwest Dairy Association’s annual Minnesota Dairy Princess Program competition.

Walz and the contest winner looked at butter sculptures made of past winners. He concluded his visit by shaking hands and taking selfies with hundreds of fairgoers, who chanted his name intermittently throughout his visit.?

Rep. Adam Schiff is pictured in Burbank, California, on March 5.

Rep. Adam Schiff, who is running for Senate in California, reiterated Sunday that he would support a ban on fracking, differentiating himself from Vice President Kamala Harris’ stance while acknowledging that Harris is seeking to represent a broader constituency.

During a September 2019 climate crisis town hall hosted by CNN, Harris was asked whether she would commit to implementing a federal ban on fracking on her first day in office.

“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking, and starting with what we can do on Day 1 around public lands,” Harris said at the time.

By the time she became Biden’s running mate, she had moved away from that stance and even cast the tie-breaking vote to expand fracking leases, as she said to Bash in an interview last week.

“What I have seen is that we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking,” she said.

Corey Lewandowski is pictured during a walkthrough at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 14.

Corey Lewandowski, a senior adviser on the Trump-Vance campaign, said there would be “no changes at the top” within the team as the fall campaign season begins.

Lewandowski also committed to former President Donald Trump being at the September 10 presidential debate under rules which include muted mics?throughout the debate except for the candidate whose turn it is to speak.

“We’ve agreed to the rules of the debate. We are looking forward to being there on September 10. The microphones will be off. People will be standing at a lectern and there will be no notes,” he said.

Trump seemed to?undercut his campaign?last week, signaling that he would be willing to debate with the mics on.?

Lewandowski said the Harris campaign should be on board with the previously set debate rules, because she had been involved in the discussions when the parameters were negotiated under the Biden campaign.?

“When we originally set the parameter for the debates, which was for, at the time, President Biden, Kamala Harris was also part of that, because we set the same parameters for the vice presidential debate,” he said. “Once again Kamala Harris and her team are changing what the positions have been,” he said.?

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a speech in Houston on July 25.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who is helping former president Donald Trump prepare for his first presidential debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, previewed a face off where voters will be able to compare the candidates’ policy records.

“Kamala Harris has a lot of experience. She is not to be underestimated,” Gabbard told CNN of her one-time Democratic primary opponent.

Gabbard noted that both candidates have “served at the highest offices in the land,” explaining, “this will be an opportunity for voters to look at and compare and contrast those records.”

Gabbard said she would help Trump by sharing her own experiences engaging in fierce debate exchanges with Harris during the 2020 primary, and “helping to point out some ways that Kamala Harris has already shown that she is trying to move away from her record, move away from her positions, and how that contradicts the positions and statements that she is making now that she is the Democratic nominee.”

Harris told CNN earlier this week that though she has changed positions on certain policy issues like banning fracking, “The most important and most significant aspect of my policy perspective and decisions is my values have not changed.”

Gabbard, along with former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have both been added to Trump’s transition team after endorsing Trump in recent days.

Though Gabbard has alluded to an interest in serving in a second Trump administration as secretary of state or defense secretary, she said she had not addressed the matter with Trump directly. “It’s important for us right now to point out the difference between Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump, what kind of president and commander in chief they would be,” she said.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ top campaign adviser says the Democrat remains the “clear underdog” in a critical stretch of the presidential contest, looking to guard against complacency as the fall campaign season begins.

Jen O’Malley Dillon, the campaign chair, wrote in a memo Sunday that rival Donald Trump retains a “motivated base of support,” and predicts a result as close as 2020.

“In 2020, the election came down to about 40,000 votes across the battleground states. This November, we anticipate margins to be similarly razor-thin,” she writes in the memo.

Pointing to the September 10 debate and an increased pace of travel, O’Malley Dillon said the weeks ahead will be critical in defining the Democratic ticket.

The country “needs to hear relentlessly from us about Vice President Harris and her vision for the country,” she wrote.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

This is how the Harris and Trump campaigns are spending Labor Day on Monday:

Kamala Harris: The vice president is set to travel to Detroit on Monday before being joined by President Joe Biden in Pittsburgh for a Labor Day event as part of the campaign’s push to appeal to working class voters across battleground states. The event will be held at 4:45 p.m. ET, per the White House.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will also attend a?Labor?Day?event in Newport News, Virginia.

Tim Walz: The Democratic vice presidential nominee will deliver remarks at the Milwaukee Area Labor Council’s Laborfest 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Minnesota governor will be joined by his wife, Gwen Walz.

Trump allies: At 9 a.m. ET, the?Trump?campaign in Michigan will host a press video call with current and retired members of the United Auto Workers to respond to Harris’ visit to Detroit.

In videos posted by Donald Trump on Saturday, parents of US service members who were killed during the Abbey Gate bombing praised the former president and condemned Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden.

The videos posted to Truth Social come as the Trump campaign grapples with controversy over his visit this week to Arlington National Cemetery to honor the 13 US service members who were killed in the Kabul airport bombing in 2021. Trump was rebuked by the Army over his campaign’s use of video and images from the visit, which critics say ran afoul of rules prohibiting political activity on the sacred grounds.

Earlier Saturday, Harris blasted Trump in a statement, saying he is “unable to comprehend anything other than service to himself.”

Darin Hoover, father of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, said in another video Trump posted: “Kamala, I want you to understand — and I know it will be difficult for you because you lack empathy and basic understanding — the events that happened on August 26, 2024, with President Trump at Arlington National Cemetery were solemn and in keeping with the reverence and respect that is given to all members of our military that are buried there.”?

Coral Doolittle, mother of Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, said in a video, “Kamala Harris and President Biden didn’t even say their 13 names. They called the withdrawal in Afghanistan a success, and for us, it was just sadness and a disgrace.”

Another family’s account: In addition to the grave sites of soldiers killed in Kabul, the grave of an Army Special Forces soldier who died by suicide was also featured in at least one photo posted online from the visit. The family of Master Sgt. Andrew Marckesano has since said they did not give the campaign permission to photograph the plot.

The family said in a statement this week that, while they support the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan in their “quest for answers and accountability,” they had spoken to the cemetery and do not believe the campaign followed the rules for its visit to the grounds.

People prepare to cast their ballots in Royal Oak, Michigan, on August 6.

The 2024 presidential race is set to enter a critical new juncture, with Vice President Kamala Harris?and former President?Donald Trump?set to debate and the first swing state ballots hitting mailboxes shortly after the Labor Day holiday?weekend.

As the?calendar?turns to September, both campaigns are narrowing their focus on key battleground states — with Harris eyeing an expanded map and Trump digging in across the Upper Midwest states that delivered him the presidency in 2016 and ousted him from office in 2020.

It all comes as voting is set to begin?this week.

Harris last week focused on the Sun Belt,?with a bus tour in Georgia and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz,?also visiting?North Carolina.

Trump, meanwhile, turned his attention to the “blue wall” of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, holding events in all three states late in the week and promising an economic revival.

Read more here about the 2024 presidential campaign

President Joe Biden speaks to the press after attending a church service in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, on August 31.

President Joe Biden is set to return to the campaign trail on Monday, joining Vice President Kamala Harris at a Labor Day event in Pittsburgh after spending most?of the past weeks out of sight.

Biden has been resetting in California and Delaware following a whirlwind six weeks after ending his future in presidential politics.

The president has stayed out of the public eye for large stretches of the bicoastal vacation, charting out how to spend his remaining months in office after abandoning his bid for a second term in the White House. Biden is expected to return to the campaign trail on Monday to support Harris before returning to Washington.

What’s still to come: Now free from the pressures and time constraints that come with being a campaign principal, Biden has worked over the last few weeks to set his legacy — with a special focus on foreign affairs. His administration’s negotiation with Russia that led to the largest prisoner exchange in decades at the beginning of this month was a crucial achievement.

Throughout his time in California and Delaware, the president participated in a series of calls with foreign leaders as the US continues to push for a deal that would see a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Hamas-held hostages, while trying to stop clashes between Israel and Hezbollah from devolving into a wider war that could draw in the United States and Iran.

Biden has also spoken with at least five world leaders since his speech at the Democratic National Convention last week. He spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the continued threats from Iran and the need for a ceasefire deal last?Wednesday.

Read more here about Biden’s time away from the spotlight

Anyone who pays any attention to US politics is bound to hear some version of this claim: The?2024 election, which will pick a president for a nation of more than 330 million people, will be decided by a small number of voters in a few key states.

In 2020, Joe Biden turned a handful of states from red to blue to defeat then-President Donald Trump. The difference between victory and defeat was a tiny fraction of voters in those states.

In 2024, it could again be small margins in these few states that are the difference between another Trump Republican presidency or a win for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee.

Trump will try to win those same states back from Democrats. The map could also change since the US population is shifting and both sides are hoping to bring a few more states into their respective column. In any event, the margins could be just as close.

But to say that a small number of voters “decide” the election is a major oversimplification of the American system and how it has evolved.

Here’s how things work.