Election 2024: Biden and Harris talk drug prices; Trump continues personal attacks at press conference (2024)

Secret Service approves bulletproof glass to shield Trump at outdoor rallies

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Katherine Doyle

Kelly O'Donnell

Jonathan Allen

Katherine Doyle, Kelly O'Donnell and Jonathan Allen

Harris’ campaign today is rolling out some of her housing policy proposals, including her support for efforts aimed at lowering the cost of rent and helping renters who are struggling financially, according to details NBC News obtained from a campaign official.

Harris will propose plans to stop data firms from driving up lease rates and plans aimed at stopping Wall Street investors from buying up and reselling homes in bulk at a higher price, according to the proposal.

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Harris has already started debate prep for her Sept. 10 faceoff with Trump, and she held a mock session Monday at Howard University in Washington D.C., according to a source familiar with the plans.

The Harris team has tapped longtime Democratic strategist Philippe Reines to play Trump, reprising the role he took opposite Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during her 2016 campaign.

Harris and Trump have never met or spoken in person, so the mock session is intended to help further familiarize Harris with how Trump speaks and acts, the source said.

John Fetterman was angry.

The Democratic senator from Pennsylvania was readying to speak ata disaster response news conference in Bucks Countyon July 16, 2023, just hours after flooding in Upper Makefield that ultimately killed seven people. Local officials spoke for a few minutes to offer an initial update for the assembled media. Then, Gov.Josh Shapiroprovided information about what his administration was doing to respond to the emergency.

After a few minutes, Shapiro tossed the microphone back to the local responders — not Fetterman. Moments later, the event wrapped without Fetterman’s ever speaking.

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Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, spoke during a virtual political conference meeting tonight to give Republicans a broad update about the state of the race for the House majority since Harris replaced Biden atop the Democratic ticket, a source on the call told NBC News.

Hudson’s message was that overall, Republicans still have a good chance to pick up seats and that he believes they will. But he acknowledged the challenges, too, specifically the supercharged Democratic fundraising, including Harris’ $300 million-plus month and high online fundraising by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the source said.

He also issued a challenge to the conference, saying now is the time to step up and do more to capitalize on the opportunity to pick up seats, the source added.

The remarks are a rare acknowledgment from a high-ranking Republican official that the political landscape has gotten tougher for the GOP since Biden dropped out, as public polls widely show. The plan to hold the meeting was first reported by Politico.

Trump addressed the alleged hack of his campaign by Iran after today's news conference in Bedminster, New Jersey.

"I’m not happy with it. Our government shouldn’t let that happen," Trump said in response to a question from NBC News’ Garrett Haake.

Pressed about whether a government response is needed, Trump said, "There should be," adding, "They have no respect for our government."

The FBI said this week that it's investigating efforts to hack both the Trump and the Biden-Harris campaigns.

In an exchange with NBC News correspondent Vaughn Hillyard after his news conference, Trump declined to say whether he would ask his attorney general to dismiss the federal charges against him if he wins in November.

"I don't want to talk about that," Trump said. "They're nonsense cases."

Republicans are seeking to use some of Biden’s top legislative accomplishments — the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan — against Democrats in the weeks before an election in which the economy is a top issue for voters.

In Pennsylvania, Sen. Bob Casey’s Republican opponent, David McCormick, is highlighting Casey’s support for the IRA, as well as his comments downplaying inflation in 2021 and 2022, when the average rate of inflation topped 8%.

In a digital video ad first shared with NBC News today, McCormick’s campaign tries to paint Casey as a vulnerable Democrat who is “dangerously liberal” alongside Harris, who served with him in the Senate before she was named Biden’s running mate in 2020.

Trump was asked at his news conference today whether he regretted debating Biden early in the presidential race.

"Do I regret debating Biden? So it was — it was his request. He said we should get the debates done early, and I was willing," Trump said.

"Whether or not the debate should have happened would have been a better question to ask of Joe Biden, because had he not done the debate, he would still be running for president, and people would be hiding him, just like they're hiding her right now," Trump added in an apparent jab at Harris, whom his campaign has challenged to participate in more debates and interviews.

Biden and Trump faced off in a debate hosted by CNN on June 28, unusually early for a presidential election cycle. Biden's poor performance helped precipitate his decision to withdraw from the race, shaking up polling ahead of November.

Trump was asked about his interview with Elon Musk this week and whether he was comfortable with companies' threatening to fire workers who go on strike.

"No, I want companies to get workers that are going to love them," Trump said, adding that his desire was for employees to work for wages that allow companies to "make a profit, so they can go and expand."

Trump, who is courting the union vote, praised Musk this week for firing workers, referring to him as “the greatest cutter” in an apparent reference to the dismissal of workers during organizing efforts.

Following Trump's comments to Musk, the United Auto Workers on Tuesday filed labor charges with the National Labor Relations Board against both Trump and Musk for praising the practice of firing workers who threaten to strike.

During a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump defended his campaign approach that's been criticized by allies who say he should not be making personal attacks on Harris.

Trump said he believed he was "entitled to personal attacks."

"I don’t have a lot of respect for her intelligence, and I think she’ll be a terrible president," Trump said, adding that he believed Harris has "weaponized" the Justice Department against him with amid his various legal battles.

"They're not nice to me," Trump said. "They want to put me in prison."

Trump said during his news conference this evening that he last spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu when the Israeli Prime Minister visited Mar-a-Lago in late July.

“I expect I might be talking to him, but I haven’t since then,” Trump said in response to a question from NBC News' Garrett Haake.

In his response, denied an earlier news report that said he spoke with Netanyahu by phone yesterday and that they had discussed a potential cease-fire and hostages deal.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is canceling his planned appearances in Chicago the week it will host the Democratic National Convention so he can focus on preparing for trials aimed at getting his name on ballots in more states, his campaign said today.

“Mr. Kennedy will now be testifying in court next week in Harrisburg, PA on Tuesday and Mineola, NY on Wednesday or Thursday to defend ballot access challenges. In order to prepare for the court appearance, the Kennedy campaign has canceled its events in Chicago on Sunday and Monday,” his campaign said.

Kennedy also canceled plans to campaign in Wisconsin during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month.

According to an NBC News tracker, Kennedy is on the ballot in 15 states, but he faces lawsuits that could threaten his access. And on Monday, a judge ruled against his effortto appear on New York’sgeneral election ballotthis fall, throwing his ballot access into question.

Now set to join the campaign, Corey Lewandowski has long had Trump’s ear, and the two are known to speak regularly. Their close bond dates to the earliest days of Trump’s White House bid in 2016, when Lewandowski, a former lobbyist and New Hampshire GOP operative, signed on as his campaign manager.

He comes aboard as Trump navigates a rapidly changing electoral landscape, with polls showing Harris closing the advantage Trump had over Biden.

NBC News reported in December how Lewandowski is part of Trump’s informal kitchen cabinet of advisers and that Trump made a display of this loyalty at a stop in New Hampshire last fall as he called out into the crowd for Lewandowski to join him.

“Where is Corey? Corey. Get over here, Corey. Come here, Corey. Give me Corey. I gotta get him up,” Trump said, calling Lewandowski someone “that’s been with me really from the beginning.”

For the third straight season, the NBA did not schedule games on Election Day.

Areleasefor the 2024-25 regular season schedule noted that the league “will continue to encourage fans and the broader NBA community to make a plan to vote and participate in the civic process.”

All 30 teams will play the day before Election Day. Before the start of the 2020-21 season, 23 teams used their arenas or practice facilities aspolling or voting centers for the 2020 election.

Former Rep. Conor Lamb, D-Pa., responded to Republicans' attacking Walz’s military record, saying, “It’s not who was G.I. Joe in the war; it’s who’s going to fight for the G.I. Bill?”

Lamb told reporters at a news conference held by the Harris campaign that Walz has spent years “actually developing legislation.”

Meanwhile, he said, “JD Vance has been a senator for a year and a half. I couldn’t tell you a single piece of legislation that he has introduced to help our veterans, much less passed.”

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a GOP Senate candidate, criticized the Biden-Harris administration on health care ahead of their joint visit to Maryland to highlight Democrats' latest cost-cutting measures.

"President Biden and Vice President Harris’s visit to Maryland highlights the urgent need to address the burden of skyrocketing costs facing families and especially our seniors," Hogan wrote, noting health care is the top issue for voters on the campaign trail.

Hogan promised to expand access to affordable health care if elected to the Senate and highlighted how as governor, he worked with the state's legislature to enact health care reforms including lowering premiums by 30%, capping the cost of insulin and "taking on the Pharmacy Benefit Managers who are driving up the cost of prescription drugs." Hogan promised to "further expand access to affordable health care and increase transparency in drug pricing."

Hogan is lagging in polls behind Democratic challenger Angela Alsobrooks, who would become the state's first Black woman elected to the Senate.

Biden was interrupted several times by pro-Palestinian protesters while speaking to attendees in an overflow room following remarks on efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs.

The protesters were drowned out by the crowd chanting "Thank you, Joe."

MyPillow owner Mike Lindell, an election denier and conspiracy theorist, is at Trump's Bedminster club, where the former president will hold a news conference this afternoon.

Lindell was spotted chatting with Trump, who was sitting in one of his golf carts.

At a rally to unveil the Biden administration's agreement with drugmakers to lower the cost of prescription drugs, Biden ignited cheers from the crowds as he said, "Let me tell you what our project 2025 is: beat the hell out of them."

The agreement, which will lower the cost of the 10 costliest prescription drugs on Medicare, comes as an estimated 1 in 7 adults struggle to pay for their medications. Biden was joined by Harris, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Sen. Ben Cardin at the event as he detailed his experience with health care over the years.

"Years ago, I had two craniotomies because I had an aneurism. My bill if I didn't have insurance was hundreds of thousands of dollars," Biden said.

He added, "I wouldn't be able to buy anything, wouldn't be able to have a credit. But now we're going to get rid of health care cost pain."

The Harris campaign posted a video to its YouTube channel this afternoon showing Harris and Walz discussing their upbringings including the music they listened to and what it was like growing up in different parts of the country.

Walz said he loved Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger. Harris said she loved Aretha Franklin and Prince.

Walz explained that his father died when he was 19 as a result of chain smoking. He spoke about life afterward and the importance of programs that help prevent people from dropping into poverty.

In remarks to the press as he departed the White House, Biden denied that Harris would distance herself from him if elected and said he expects her to continue his economic policies.

“Whatever you call it, the economy is going to continue, all those legislations that have passed are working. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s working,” Biden said when asked if he thought his economic policies would continue under a Harris administration.

Asked how much it will bother him if Harris distances herself from him if she wins the election, the president said, “She’s not going to.”

Hours after Vance said he accepted an invitation to participate in a CBS vice presidential debate on Oct. 1, the Harris campaign said Walz will also take part in that debate and suggested there would be another presidential debate in the same month if Trump follows through with his scheduled one with Harris on Sept. 10.

“The debate about debates is over. Donald Trump’s campaign accepted our proposal for three debates — two presidential and a vice presidential debate,” Michael Tyler, the communications director for the campaign, said in a statement. “Assuming Donald Trump actually shows up on September 10 to debate Vice President Harris, then Governor Walz will see JD Vance on October 1 and the American people will have another opportunity to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October.”

Vance on Thursday said that in addition to the October vice presidential debate on CBS, he would also do one on CNN on Sept. 18, which neither Walz nor the campaign has agreed he would do.

Addressing that issue, Tyler said, "The more they play games, the more insecure and unserious Trump and Vance reveal themselves to be to the American people. Those games end now.”

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will speak at the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday evening, according to two sources with knowledge of planning for the event.

NBC News has previously reported it’s the same night former President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker also has a prime-time slot that night.

Vice President Kamala Harris is set to hold a rally on that same day in Milwaukee.

The DNC kicks off Monday and runs through Thursday. So far, the committee has not released a full schedule of speakers.

Vance demurred when pressed by NBC News about whether he stands by his 2021 comments suggesting corporations criticize abortion bans because they seek “cheap labor” and “don’t want people to parent children.”

“Well, sometimes the evidence to support it is what people actually say,” Vance said at a news conference in New Kensington, Pennsylvania.

He argued there should be “a culture of pro-family thinking and pro-family policy in this country, where we see children as blessings and as resources and not as curses, which is how I think way too many companies, and frankly, way too many of our leaders in Washington think about our young children.”

“So I would very much like for our young moms and our young dads to have whatever family they want to have, and for them to not feel like it’s going to ruin their career or ruin their future," he continued. "We should be encouraging young moms and dads to bring life into the world, and I think there are a whole host of ways in which we prevent them from doing it, and that’s got to change.”

Harris' campaign preemptively sent out a news release mocking Trump ahead of his scheduled press conference this afternoon at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, highlighting a dramatic change in tone and tactics following Biden's decision to end his re-election bid.

The headline of the news release says, "TODAY: Donald Trump To Ramble Incoherently and Spread Dangerous Lies in Public, but at Different Home."

It goes on to say that at 4:30 p.m. ET, "Donald J. Trump, loser of the 2020 election by 7 million votes, will hold another public meltdown in Bedminster, New Jersey."

"Not so fresh off NABJ, Florida, and Twitter glitches, Donald Trump intends to deliver another self-obsessed rant full of his own personal grievances to distract from his toxic Project 2025 agenda, unpopular running mate, and increasing detachment from the reality of the voters who will decide this election," the campaign said.

Harris will hold a campaign rally in Milwaukee on Tuesday during the Democratic convention, her campaign said in a news release. The visit is her seventh to the state this year and her third since she launched her campaign, it said.

The Trump campaign has announced it is bringing Corey Lewandowski, Taylor Budowich and other election veterans back into the fold.

Lewandowski has been an informal adviser to Trump since he was fired as campaign manager in 2016. Budowich was a spokesperson for Trump's 2020 campaign and has been leading the super PAC MAGA Inc. Tim Murtaugh, Trump’s 2020 campaign communications director, will also join the team.

“Their unmatched experience will help President Trump prosecute the case against Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, the most radical ticket in American history,” campaign co-managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement.

Politico first reported that Lewandowski would join the 2024 campaign.

Trump's lawyers sent a letter to New York Judge Juan Merchan yesterday asking that he postpone the former president's sentencing in the hush money case until after the presidential election on Nov. 5.

Trump is currently scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18 in the case. He was found guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in late May.

In the letter, Todd Blanche said the court should adjourn sentencing anyway because of the Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling in July. But he said if the sentencing still necessary, it should be delayed.

"Sentencing is currently scheduled to occur after the commencement of early voting in the Presidential election," he wrote. "By adjourning the sentencing until after that election — which is of paramount importance to the entire Nation, including tens of millions of people who do not share the views of Authentic, its executives, and its clients — the Court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings."

Vance said in a 2021 speech that companies that back abortion rights just want a pool of "cheap labor" with workers unaffected by those caring for children. The speech was first reported by The Christian Science Monitor.

Vance was referring to a statement from former Georgia Democratic House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams who said that a Georgia abortion ban would be “bad for business."

“She was right, this is something that those of us on the right have to accept is that when the big corporations come against you for passing abortion restrictions, when corporations are so desperate for cheap labor that they don’t want people to parent children, she’s right to say that abortion restrictions are bad for business," Vance said in his speech to a conservative group.

NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

Vance said he has accepted an invitation from CBS News for a vice presidential debate against Walz on Oct. 1, as well as another debate, with CNN, on Sept. 18 that Walz has yet to agree to.

“The American people deserve as many debates as possible, which is why President Trump has challenged Kamala to three of them already,” he wrote on X. “Not only do I accept the CBS debate on October 1st, I accept the CNN debate on September 18th as well. I look forward to seeing you at both!”

Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in his Manhattan hush money case on the same day as the CNN debate.

There are signs the economy is slowing down, but Walmart, the nation's biggest private employer and retailer, doesn't expect it to get much worse.

“In this environment, it’s responsible or prudent to be a little bit guarded with the outlook, but we’re not projecting a recession,” Walmart CFO John David Rainey told CNBC. Indeed, he added, the company doesn't see "additional fraying of consumer health."

Walmart's positive outlook comes as data released yesterday showed the rate of inflation has fallen to the slowest point in more than three years. Also, consumer spending and retail sales were stronger than expected last month, according to new numbers. The retailer, which is also the biggest grocer by sales, weathered the inflation storm in large part because of its lower grocery prices drawing more families making more than $100,000 a year.

Grocery price increases have moderated, but they are still significantly higher than they were four years ago, making it a flashpoint in the presidential campaign. Trump has routinely attacked the Biden-Harris campaign for the price surge, while the Harris campaign just came out with a new proposal for a federal price gouging ban that would take aim at corporations.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a post on X this morning that he doesn't intend to endorse Harris for president.

His comment comes after a report by The Washington Post last night that said he sought a meeting with her to discuss the possibility of endorsing her in exchange for a Cabinet job.

"VP Harris’s Democratic Party would be unrecognizable to my father and uncle and I cannot reconcile it with my values. The Democratic Party of RFK and JFK was the party of civil liberties and free speech. VP Harris‘s is the party of censorship, lockdowns, and medical coercion," he wrote in his lengthy post on X.

"I have no plans to endorse Kamala Harris for President. I do have a plan to defeat her," he said.

Asked to comment on the Post's report last night, Kennedy's campaign press secretaryStefanie Spear said, “Mr. Kennedy is willing to meet with leaders of both parties to discuss the possibility of a unity government.”

The Biden administration said today that it had reached an agreement with drugmakers to lower prices on the 10 costliest prescription drugs under Medicare.

It’s part of the federal government’s first drug pricing negotiations, a cost reduction it claims could help ease the financial burden on the estimated 1 in 7 older adults in the U.S. struggling to pay for their medications.

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Reporting from Chicago, Illinois

Protesters fueled by fervent opposition to American support of Israel remain dedicated to demonstrating outside the Democratic National Convention next week, despite the party’s last-minute change to a nominee who is seen as more sympathetic to their cause.

Protest groups readying for the event say tens of thousands of people will descend on Chicago for the event to coronate Harris as the nominee after Biden abandoned his re-election bid.

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In his 2016 memoir, Sen. JD Vance wrote in awe of his older sister, who, despite an upbringing filled with trauma, broke the cycle of abandonment and dysfunction that defined their childhood.

“There was something heroic about Lindsay’s marriage — that after everything she’d witnessed, she’d ended up with someone who treated her well and had a decent job,” Vance, now the Republican nominee for vice president, observed in the pages of “Hillbilly Elegy.”

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Walz, Harris' running mate, is scheduled to speak at Harris-Walz campaign receptions in Newport, Rhode Island, and Southampton, New York.

Neither state is thought to be in play in the election, but both are often the sites of political fundraisers.

Vance, Trump's running mate, will stump in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, this morning.

Vance, a senator from Ohio, has frequently been dispatched to the Rust Belt.

Trumpyesterday delivered what had been billed as remarks focusing on his plans for the economy, but he went on numerous tangents about Biden, Harris, Walz and windmills.

Trump spoke before an enthusiastic crowd in Asheville, North Carolina, as his allies and advisers have beenurginghimto focus onhispolicy differenceswith Harris and veer away from personal attacks. While he outlined several areas in which the two diverge on policy, they were overshadowed by insults lobbed at top Democrats.

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