Michigan judge rules Robert F. Kennedy Jr. must remain on the ballot

A judge in battleground Michigan has ruled that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., must remain on the presidential ballot despite his push to remove himself – in a ruling that could harm Donald Trump.

Kennedy, a former Democrat who then ran as an independent, suspended his campaign and threw his support for Trump. Now, he wants his name off the ballot in battleground states where some polls show him pulling votes from the Republican.

Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state Jocelyn Benson wrote that a candidate who takes a party nomination ‘shall not be permitted to withdraw.’

Kennedy also filed a suit to get off the ballot in North Carolina – a Trump 2020 state which is emerging as a key battleground. Wisconsin rejected an earlier request to withdraw there.

Meanwhile, his team filed papers to get him on the ballot in Mississippi, a state where Trump is almost certain to prevail.

Kennedy has said he doesn’t want to be a spoiler, and wants to get off the ballot in states where he would ‘hand the election over to the Democrats, with whom I disagree on the most existential issues.’

House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, is threatening to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress if he doesn't appear to publicly testify on the Afghanistan withdrawal on September 19.

The threat comes just after the three-year mark of the withdrawal under President Biden's administration, during which 13 U.S. servicemembers were killed.

McCaul says he's 'central to the Afghanistan withdrawal' as he served as the 'senior authority' during the exit.

The Committee is holding this hearing because the Department of State was central to the Afghanistan withdrawal and served as the senior authority during the August non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO), McCaul states.

As Secretary of State throughout the withdrawal and NEO, you were entrusted to lead these efforts and to secure the safe evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies. In testimony before the Committee, current and former State Department officials have confirmed that you served as the final decisionmaker for the Department on the withdrawal and evacuation.

You are therefore in a position to inform the Committee’s consideration of potential legislation aimed at helping prevent the catastrophic mistakes of the withdrawal, including potential reforms to the Department’s legislative authorization.

The Justice Department charged six senior Hamas leaders with terrorism, murder conspiracy and sanctions-evasion.

All of the defendants are either already dead or on the run, according to the agency.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement:

The Justice Department has charged Yahya Sinwar and other senior leaders of Hamas for financing, directing, and overseeing a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the national security of the United States.

On October 7th, Hamas terrorists, led by these defendants, murdered nearly 1200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds of civilians. This weekend, we learned that Hamas murdered an additional six people they had kidnapped and held captive for nearly a year, including Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23 year old Israeli American.

We are investigating Hersh’s murder, and each and every one of Hamas’ brutal murders of Americans, as an act of terrorism. The charges unsealed today are just one part of our effort to target every aspect of Hamas’ operations. These actions will not be our last.

Donald Trump has been dealt another legal blow after a judge rejected his bid to move his New York hush money case from state to federal court.

The former president has tried to delay proceedings after he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Attorneys for the Republican nominee argued the claims were biased against him and suggested the Supreme Court immunity ruling should push back the September 18 sentencing.

Federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said Trump's allegations of bias were not an issue for state courts and ruled the claims of immunity were irrelevant to the case.

Charlie Spiering, Senior Political Reporter

Former President Donald Trump will plead not guilty to revised charges filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith, according to a court filing filed Tuesday.

Smith refiled the four charges brought against Trump in 2023 causing him of trying to defraud the United States, obstruct the certification of the presidential election and deprive voters of their right to vote.

Smith is trying to reinvigorate his case against Trump after the Supreme Court ruled in July that the former president has broad immunity from criminal prosecution of official actions that he took as the president of the United States.

The new indictment frames Trump's charges as committed by him as a citizen.

Trump's attorneys will continue arguing for the trial to take place after the election, warning of election interference.

The indictment reframes the allegations in the hopes that a legal case can proceed.

From Sarah Ewall-Wice in Portsmouth, New Hampshire:

Vice President Kamala Harris is set to unveil a proposal to massively expand tax relief for small businesses as she continues to lay out her economic policy platform with just over 60 days to go before the election.

The Democratic presidential nominee will travel to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Wednesday where she will announce a new goal for a record 25 million new business applications during her first term if elected.

The proposal includes expanding the startup expense deduction for small businesses by tenfold from $5,000 to $50,000.

Her latest pitch comes just weeks after Harris traveled to North Carolina last month to give her first policy address as the presidential nominee, an economic speech in Raleigh.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called a suggestion that Kamala Harris uses different accents 'insane.'

'Do you think Americans seriously think this is an important question? You know what they care about?,' she told Fox News' Peter Doocy when he asked her about it in Tuesday's press briefing. 'They care about the economy, they care about lowering costs, they care about health care, that's what Americans care about.'

'I'm not even going to entertain some question about -- hearing it sounds so ridiculous.'

'It's insane,' she added.

Social media went crazy on Monday with claims Harris used a 'fake accent' when speaking to a teachers union during a campaign rally in Michigan.

Former President Donald Trump threw his support behind Florida's bill to legalize recreational marijuana, taking a more liberal position that could appeal to younger Gen Z voters.

His position on Amendment 3 breaks with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other GOP leaders in the state.

As everyone knows, I was, and will be again, the most respected LAW & ORDER President in U.S. History. We will take our streets back by being tough & smart on violent, & all other types, of Crime.

In Florida, like so many other States that have already given their approval, personal amounts of marijuana will be legalized for adults with Amendment 3. Whether people like it or not, this will happen through the approval of the Voters, so it should be done correctly.

We need the State Legislature to responsibly create laws that prohibit the use of it in public spaces, so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat run Cities.

At the same time, someone should not be a criminal in Florida, when this is legal in so many other States. We do not need to ruin lives & waste Taxpayer Dollars arresting adults with personal amounts of it on them, and no one should grieve a loved one because they died from fentanyl laced marijuana.

We will make America SAFE again!

Many avid podcast listeners have longed for popular conversationalist, stand-up comedian and UFC commentator Joe Rogan to interview Donald Trump.

But Trump revealed Tuesday that he has not been invited on Rogan's podcast and seemed less than enthused when asked if he would have a taped interview with him.

Rogan has said he doesn't plan to have Trump join his show because he doesn't want to help the candidate and unintentionally influence people to vote for him.

When asked about whether there was any inherent tension between Trump and Rogan, the former president said there was not.

'I don't think that there was any tension and I've always liked him. But I don't know him,' Trump told Lex Fridman on his podcast episode released on Tuesday.

'I only see him when I walk into the arena with Dana [White] and I shake his hand,' the 2024 Republican presidential nominee went on. 'I see him there and I think he's good at what he does but I don't know about doing his podcast.'

'I mean, I guess I'd do it,' he admitted. 'But I haven't been asked and I'm not asking them, you know? I'm not asking anybody.'

Former President Donald Trump told podcaster Lex Fridman that he would be open to pushing for more Jeffrey Epstein logs to be released.

Several of the long-awaited recordings and phone messages kept by convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein detailing his friends and associates were released earlier this year.

But there are many more documents that have yet to be uncovered, including the list of clients that went to his island for sex with minors.

Trump said Epstein was 'a good salesman,' which is why he was able to convince high-profile politicians and public figures to come to his island

'He had some nice assets that he'd throw around, like islands, but a lot of big people went to that island. But fortunately, I was not one of them,' he added.

When pressed by Fridman about whether he'd press to make public Epstein's flight logs if in a place to exert that power, Trump said he would.

'I'll certainly take a look at it,' Trump responded when asked if he's in favor of pushing for the logs to be made public.

'Yeah, I'd be inclined to do the Epstein, I have no problem with it.'

Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S Political Reporter:

The Harris campaign and the Democratic National Committee announced on Tuesday that it is spending $25 million on efforts to elect Democrats down ballot. It's the largest transfer ever made in a presidential election cycle.

The money will go to the Democratic campaign arms that help elect senators (DSCC), House members (DCCC) and state legislators (DLCC). They're also ramping up efforts to help get more Democratic Attorneys General and governors elected.

'The Vice President believes that this race is about mobilizing the entire country, in races at every level, to fight for our freedoms and our economic opportunity,' said Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon in a statement.

Nate Silver's election model is still giving ex-President Donald Trump hope for winning the election.

The forecast, most recently updated on September 3, has Trump with a 56.7% chance of winning the election compared to Kamala Harris' 43%.

That's the highest chance of winning for Trump since August 31, in the wake of his near-assassination.

Trump also holds the predicted lead in most swing states including Pennsylvania (57%), Georgia (64%), Arizona (67%), North Carolina (70%) and Nevada (57%).

Harris takes Michigan (51%) and Wisconsin (53%) according to the forecast.

Silver's model looks at all reputable national polling to make a prediction.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

The White House said Hamas’ killing of six Israeli hostages over the weekend increases the 'sense of urgency' to get a cease fire deal in the Middle East.

It ‘just underscores for us how important it is to keep that work alive and keep going,’ National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during a zoom briefing with reporters.

He said a deal was ‘still being negotiated, which means that the sides are still talking about the text itself.’

'But we can get there,’ Kirby added although he declined to give a timeline.

The deaths of the six hostages led to massive protests across Israel, with thousands demanding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commit to a cease-fire deal.

Netanyahu has vowed to continue the fighting until Hamas is destroyed.

Former President Donald Trump revived the Arlington Cemetery controversy Tuesday in a post where he denied reports that a campaign aide fought with a cemetery official.

'There was no conflict or “fighting” at Arlington National Cemetery last week. It was a made up story by Comrade Kamala and her misinformation squad,’ Trump posted on his Truth Social Site, a week after reports on the incident on the anniversary of the Abbey Gate terrorist attack in Afghanistan.

She made it all up to make up for the fact that she and Sleepy Joe have BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS for the INCOMPETENT AFGHANISTAN Withdrawal - THE MOST EMBARRASSING DAY IN U.S. HISTORY!!!’ Trump posted. He said it ‘could not have been a nicer moment-And there were no fights or problems, only in the heads of those that are destroying our Country!

An Army spokesperson said in an official statement following the incident that, ‘Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds. An ANC employee who attempted to ensure adherence to these rules was abruptly pushed aside.’

The U.S. is close to a deal to provide long-range cruise missiles that could strike deep inside Russia to Ukraine, according to U.S. officials.

The powerful Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSM), which each carry a 1,000 pound warhead, cost about $1 million each and could be included in a ‘draw-down’ package of assistance this fall, according to sources, Reuters reported.

They could provide Ukraine, which has been consistently clamoring for more weapons, to strike inside Russia to hit areas where it stages supplies to keep up its invasion in eastern Ukraine. Delivery could take months, even amid continued Russian attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure.

The report comes on a day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 50 people were killed when two Russian ballistic missiles struck a military training institute and a hospital in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia are demanding Donald Trump answer to a new report that he accepted a $10 million campaign contribution from Egyptian President Abdel Fatah El-Sisi in 2016.

A new Washington Post report makes the new allegations and claims Trump's appointees at the Department of Justice covered up the contribution.

The lawmakers wrote to Trump:

Surely you would agree that the American people deserve to know whether a former president—and a current candidate for president—took an illegal campaign contribution from a brutal foreign dictator.  Accordingly, we request that you immediately provide the Committee with information and documents necessary to assure the Committee and the American public that you never, directly or indirectly, politically or personally, received any funds from the Egyptian President or Government.

Raskin is Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and Garcia is Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs.

President Joe Biden on Monday complained about tightened Secret Service restrictions that are keeping him away from voters.

'I'm not able to go out into crowds anymore, the Secret Service doesn't let me,' he told reporters at the White House.

'They said it's too dangerous. No one gets to go out,' he noted.

Biden was just back from Pittsburgh, where he held his first campaign event with Kamala Harris since she replaced him as the Democratic presidential nominee.

It's going to be a full sprint to the finish line for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris as the presidential nominees face just two months to Election Day.

With just 63 days left of the 2024 election season, the vice president is seeing a growing advantage when it comes to one group of voters.

Harris now leads Trump by thirteen points among women, according to the latest polling by ABC/Ipsos. It found Harris at 54 percent while Trump was at 41 percent.

It also comes as the issue of reproductive rights has been front and center on the campaign trail.

Sarah Ewall-Wice, Senior U.S. Political Reporter:

The Harris-Walz campaign on Tuesday released a new ad titled 'Focused' as part of its pitch of the vice president's economic agenda to voters.

It is one of several ads released since the Democratic National Convention by the campaign that economic ad and attempts to draw contrast between Harris and rival Donald Trump.

The ad is part of the campaign's $370 million reservation for TV and digital ads running between Labor Day and November 5.

The ad includes a clip of Harris talking about building up the middle class and a narrator laying out her economic plan which includes efforts to address housing affordability as well as a controversial plan to take on price gouging.

'This election, the choice comes down to a simple question: Which candidate is focused on the American people? Vice President Harris knows costs are still too high for Americans and has a plan to bring them down and build up the middle class,' said campaign spokesperson Charles Lutvak in a statement.

'Donald Trump either doesn’t get it or doesn’t care, which may explain why his ‘economic plan’ is to give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations,' he continued.

From Rob Crilly, Chief U.S. Political Correspondent

The Trump campaign says it won the first round of the debate battle, with rules that include no notes, no audience and no open mics 'so Harris can't interrupt,' as a source put it.

Harris caved just like I said they would.

Now they face the next contest.

The source tells DailyMail.com that the order of closing statements and lectern position will be decided with a virtual coin toss at 12:30pm eastern today.

Six weeks after an assassin's bullet tore through his ear, Donald Trump said the attack had left no mental scars and he had not felt the need for any counseling.

'A couple of people have asked me that, and I have had no impact,' he told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview. 'It's just amazing.'

He went on to describe in spiritual terms how the moment had crystallized in his mind the importance of his political mission.

Trump, 78, said he had suffered no flashbacks or bad dreams of the sort associated with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and had felt no need for counseling.

'But I have not had any, I must tell you, I don't think about it a lot,' he said.

'I don't want to think about it a lot, but I've had ... no it's had no impact. It healed up.'

Republican Voters against Trump put $11.5 million into a swing state ad blitz targeting the former president.

The ads will run through September in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district.

It includes videos of previous Trump voters who have flipped to support Kamala Harris.

It also includes nearly 80 billboards that read: 'I’m a former Trump voter. I’m voting for Harris.'

The ad blitz comes after former Republicans spoke in support of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris at the DNC in Chicago.

The Harris campaign has been making a concerted effort to engage Republican and Independent voters ready to reject the former Republican president and have recruited Republicans to help.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Kamala Harris’ campaign has launched a ‘Fighting for Reproductive Freedom’ bus tour in Donald Trump’s backyard.

The Democratic candidate is sending a flurry of surrogates on the road to keep reproductive rights in the spotlight, an issue that has proven a winning one in motivating Democratic voters, especially women.

The first stop will be Palm Beach, Fla., where Trump’s presidential campaign is headquartered and where his Mar-a-Lago home is located.

Harris' campaign has hammered Trump for the crackdown in reproductive rights across the nation after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade.

From Palm Beach, the bus will travel to Jacksonville and then make at least 50 stops in key states throughout the fall.

Tuesday’s tour stops will feature Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Republican TV personality Ana Navarro, and reproductive rights storyteller Anya Cook.

Trump said last week he would vote to support Florida’s ballot measure that would outlaw abortions after the six-week mark. At that point many women do not yet know they are pregnant.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign head is now telling Vice President Kamala Harris what she needs to do to win in November – and it’s not by promising four more years of the same administration as Joe Biden.

James Carville, who now consults with a Democratic Super PAC and hosts Politics War Room, told Harris her biggest ‘political advantage’ is that the public has already made up their mind about Donald Trump.

In a New York Times opinion essay published on Tuesday, Carville wrote:

Trump’s approval rating has never much strayed from the mid- to low 40s for nearly a decade. No matter his divisive policies, Covid, the indictments, who his No. 2 was or whatever bile he spewed on social media, the jury of public opinion on Donald Trump is settled.

He noted that Clinton won in 1992 with a ‘message of change versus more of the same’ and Barack Obama won in 2008 with the ‘audacity of hope.’

Even Trump, Carville noted, won in 2016 ‘on a blank promise to revive a relic of America.’

2024 will be won by who is fresh and who is rotten. It’s quite simple: The shepherd of tomorrow wins the sheep.

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will face questioning from Congress over his disastrous handling of nursing homes during the COVID pandemic.

House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, told DailyMail.com:

Andrew Cuomo owes answers to the 15,000 families who lost loved ones in New York’s nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On September 10, Americans will have the opportunity to hear directly from the former governor about New York's potentially fatal nursing home policies.

During closed-door testimony, Mr. Cuomo was shockingly callous when pressed to explain discrepancies in nursing home death counts, repeatedly deflected responsibility for the nursing home directive, and most egregiously, showed little remorse for the thousands of lives lost. A true leader owns up to his mistakes and takes responsibility for wrongdoing.

That is not what we saw from Mr. Cuomo during his term as governor nor during his transcribed interview. We hope that during his public hearing next week, Mr. Cuomo will stop dodging accountability and honestly answer the American people.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Kamala Harris is five points ahead of Donald Trump in a post-Democratic National Convention poll.

With just a week until the candidates’ first televised debate, Harris leads Trump 48 percent to 43 percent, according to the new survey from USA Today/Suffolk Poll.

And only one in 10 voters say they are either undecided or might change their mind before Election Day in November.

In the same polling in May, when Joe Biden was still the Democratic candidate, Trump and the president were tied at 37 percent.

The latest polling was conducted among 1,000 likely voters August 25-28, the week after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago resulted in Harris’ nomination for president.

ABC News is hosting the first debate between Harris and Trump on September 10 in Philadelphia. The CNN debate between Trump and Biden earlier this summer is what sunk the president’s reelection bid.

By Katelyn Caralle, Senior U.S. Political Reporter

Kamala Harris is facing more allegations of flip-flopping, but this time it's with her voice.

Critics claim the vice president nominee used a 'fake accent' when speaking to a teachers union during a swing state campaign push in Michigan on Monday.

Social media erupted with accusations the Democratic presidential candidate altered her voice during the remarks praising teachers union members at a Detroit high school.

Harris has faced allegations and mockery of allegedly using different accents before, and the claims, and they are now emerging with just two months until election day.

'New Kamala accent just dropped,' one X user wrote in response to a clip of Harris speaking to a teacher's union at a high school in Detroit on Monday.

In her remarks, social media users claim that Harris adopted an urban accent to relate to the working class crowd.

'You may not be a union member but you better thank a union member for the five day work week,' Harris said in a tone of voice atypical of the one she uses in her usual stump speeches.

Donald Trump has opened up a lead over Kamala Harris in the betting markets after the vice president had been gaining momentum on her Republican rival.

Trump now has a 49.7% chance of winning, leading Harris by 0.9 percentage points, according to Real Clear Polling, which aggregates half a dozen gambling sources on the election. It is Trump's first lead in the betting odds since August 22 - and comes despite polling that largely backs Harris to take the White House.

The pair were tied as recently as August 31, after Harris had come from just a 29% chance on July 21, the day Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

Harris later surged to an 8.8 percentage point lead over Trump in the betting average on August 15 before the pair slipped back to neck and neck. Harris' last clear lead over Trump was following the Democratic convention in Chicago when she opened up a 2.3 percentage point gap.

That momentum has since been stifled, with gamblers apparently unmoved by Harris' performance during her CNN interview last week, which did little to impress her naysayers and even earned criticism from Democrat voters.