Alert – Presidential election 2024: Trump leads Kamala Harris in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina

Donald Trump has notched a lead over Kamala Harris in Arizona and has stayed ahead in Georgia, two states he lost to Joe Biden in 2020, while he is clinging to a lead in North Carolina, new polling finds.

Voters across the so-called Sun Belt say that Trump improved their lives when he was president and worry that Harris will not if she wins, according to the New York Times/Siena College polling.

The polls, taken from Sept. 17 to 21, provide the latest indication that this will likely be one of the tightest presidential races in history.

In perhaps the most troubling news for the vice president, Arizona, which President Biden won by just over 10,000 votes in 2020, shows Trump ahead 50 percent to 45 percent, the poll found, compared to the same pollsters’ findings in August, which had Harris leading by five percentage points.

In North Carolina, which Trump won by under 75,000 votes in 2020, he has a slim lead over Harris, 49-47, according to the Times poll, conducted mostly before reports that Mark Robinson, the once Trump-backed Republican candidate for governor there, had made disturbing posts in a pornography forum, including alluding to himself as a 'Black Nazi'.

And in Georgia, which Biden won by just under 11,800 votes in 2020, Trump still has a slight lead, 49 percent to 45 percent, the poll finds.

The margin of error in each state is between four and five percentage points.

By Geoff Earle, Deputy U.S. Political Editor

President Joe Biden welcomed the women’s soccer champs FC Gotham to the White House Monday, then cracked a joke about New Jersey’s new senator walking away with their prize.

The visit by the New Jersey and New York based team is the first by a winner of the National Women’s Soccer League.

When it began, Biden singled out part co-owners Phil and Tammy Murphy (he said the New Jersey governor and first lady were on a trade mission abroad ) as well as New Jersey Sen. George Helmy, who was sworn in weeks ago after Sen. Robert Menendez was convicted on corruption charges.

‘George, you don’t get to take the trophy home,’ Biden told to the lawmaker, who was seated in the front row in the East Room, with the gleaming trophy on a table placed in front of the victorious team. It wasn’t clear if the comment had anything to do with ‘gold bar’ Menendez.

‘There were doubts about turning things around,’ Biden told the team. ‘But you never gave up, never gave up, and you kept the faith, as my mother would say.’

He also called up children attending the event to the stage after posing for a photo with the traditional gift of a jersey. ‘In my family we have an advantage: all the women are smarter than all the men,’ Biden told the crowd.

Vice President Kamala Harris is expanding her massive campaign war chest with just over forty days to go before Election Day.

A fundraiser in New York City on Sunday brought in $27 million, according to a Harris campaign official.

It was the Democratic presidential nominee’s largest single fundraising event since she took over the top of the ticket.

It was a star studded event. Some of the big name celebrities in attendance were Anne Hathaway, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Porter.

The campaign official said the campaign is grateful for the cash haul because they’re gearing up to compete with outside super PAC spending on the Trump side, according to a pool reporter.

Former First Lady Melania Trump will be sitting down with Fox News for her first interview of the 2024 campaign season.

It comes as Trump has remained completely off the presidential campaign trail so far besides appearing at the Republican National Convention in July where she did not give a speech.

The interview will be conducted by Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt and air on Thursday, September 26, the network announced.

The former first lady is currently promoting her new book. They will discuss the book as well as the 2024 campaign and the two assassination attempts on her husband.

This marks the first television interview Melania Trump has given in more than two years.

The Biden Administration announced a proposed ban on connected and autonomous vehicles in the U.S. using Chinese and Russian hardware.

The software ban rule would take effect in 2027, with the hardware ban coming in 2030 under the proposed Commerce Department rule. Commerce Department Secretary Gina Raymondo described the move in security terms, saying it was not a ploy to gain a trade edge.

‘When foreign adversaries build software to make a vehicle that means it can be used for surveillance, can be remotely controlled, which threatens the privacy and safety of Americans on the road,’ she said. She said in extreme cases, an adversary ‘could shut down or take control of all their vehicles operating in the United States all at the same time causing crashes, blocking roads.’

The Biden administration has also slapped tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. The announcement comes days after Israel failed to confirm whether it was behind an astonishing high-tech attack on Hezbollah personnel that caused pagers and walkie talkies to blow up, in an event that revealed how high-tech devices can present a vulnerability.

In another auto move, this time in politically important Michigan, the Transportation Department announced a $9.1 million grant meant to assist small and underserved aftermarket suppliers in the auto industry.

The Justice Department is seeking to keep Routh detained while proceedings continue.

Attorneys revealed they obtained a new letter written by Routh. It was entered into the court record today:

This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster.

It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.

It was addressed to ‘the world’ and said Trump had ‘ended relations with Iran like a child and now the Middle East has unraveled’.

Routh is set to appear in federal court on Monday for a detention hearing after the attempted assassination on September 15 at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach.

By Emily Goodin, senior White House correspondent

Kamala Harris will be on a battleground state campaign swing this week, hitting the key areas of Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada.

All three states are critical in her race with Republican rival Donald Trump.

Harris will campaign in Pennsylvania Wednesday, Arizona Friday, and Nevada Sunday. On Thursday she will be at the White House to meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky.

While in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, Harris will give a speech focused on the economy. Voters rate that their top concern going into November’s election.

Last week she focused on Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.

Her campaign sees the Sunbelt and the so-called ‘Blue Wall’ as the key to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

Her campaign’s infrastructure and organizing across these battlegrounds is far outpacing Trump’s, her team argues.

Trump will be in Pennsylvania on Monday, Georgia on Tuesday, and Michigan on Friday.

Management for Janet Jackson say that an unauthorized party spoke on the singer’s behalf in a previously-released apology over remarks she made over Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ background.

Reps for 58-year-old Jackson, whose brothers were in the Jackson Five who were behind such hits as Blame It On The Boogie, told Variety that the widely-released statement came from someone who is not a manager for the Grammy-winning artist.

According to the outlet, a person identifying themselves as Mo Elmasri ‘apparently inaccurately’ told Buzzfeed he was the singer’s rep in the mea culpa for the statements about the vice president.

The statement from Elmasri read: ‘Janet Jackson would like to clarify her recent comments. She recognizes that her statements regarding Vice President Kamala Harris’ racial identity were based on misinformation.

It continued: ‘Janet respects Harris’ dual heritage as both Black and Indian and apologizes for any confusion caused.

Congressional leaders announced an agreement Sunday on a short-term spending bill that will fund federal agencies for about three months.

The move would avert a possible partial government shutdown when the new budget year begins October 1 and pushes final decisions until after the November election.

Temporary spending bills generally fund agencies at current levels, but an additional $231 million was included to bolster the Secret Service after the two assassination attempts against Donald Trump.

Additional money was also added to aid with the presidential transition, among other things.

Lawmakers have struggled to get to this point as the current budget year winds to a close at month’s end.

At the urging of the most conservative members of his conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had linked temporary funding with a mandate that would have compelled states to require proof of citizenship when people register to vote.

But Johnson abandoned that approach to reach an agreement, even as Trump insisted there should not be a stop-gap measure without the voting requirement.

Bipartisan negotiations began in earnest shortly after that, with leadership agreeing to extend funding into mid-December.

Donald Trump revealed he likely will not run for president in 2028 if he loses the election to Vice President Kamala Harris .

The 78-year-old former president told ‘Full Measure’ with Sharyl Attkisson in an interview that aired Sunday that he does not see himself running another campaign if he does not win the White House in November.

‘If you’re not successful this time, do you see yourself running again in four years?’ Attkisson asked Trump.

‘No, I don’t. I think… that will be it. I don’t see that at all. Hopefully, we’re gonna be successful,’ Trump said.

The former president would be 82 years old by the 2028 election.

If he wins in 2024 he will be unable to run again as U.S presidents can only serve for two terms – 8 years.

A top Donald Trump ally is pressuring Nebraska Republicans to award all of their state’s Electoral College votes to the statewide winner, a late-stage rule change that could potentially help return Trump to the White House.

Nebraska and Maine are the only states that split their electoral votes by congressional district, and both have done so in recent presidential elections.

In Nebraska, which is solidly Republican, that means one of the state’s five votes is competitive for Democrats.

The district in question is the constituency encompassing Omaha, which could go either way come November.

Sen. Lindsey Graham , R-S.C., met recently with GOP lawmakers in the state to encourage them to make a change supported by the state’s all-Republican congressional delegation and Republican Gov. Jim Pillen .

The change was discussed earlier this year but lacked the votes to pass. Now, with Trump in an extremely close race against Democrat Kamala Harris where every electoral vote matters, his allies are making another push.

‘To my friends in Nebraska, that one electoral vote could be the difference between Harris being president and not, and she’s a disaster for Nebraska and the world,’ Graham said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press.

(With reporting from the Associated Press)

America’s top election forecaster has issued a chilling warning as he revealed Trump could win the 2024 race and people should start making ‘contingency plans’ now.

Nate Silver, a former professional poker player and political forecaster, has revealed his model gives Donald Trump a 58 percent chance of winning the Electoral College.

Silver, known for his uncanny ability to predict election outcomes, told The Guardian that people should be ‘making their contingency plans, like, right away’ while promoting his new book ‘On the Edge’ in London.

‘One potential advantage of having a forecast that says … it’s 50/50, is that people should be making their contingency plans, like, right away,’ he said.

‘It doesn’t mean you need [to stockpile] ammo and peanut butter’ – that giggle again – ‘but it means, you know: what’s your strategy to protect American institutions in the event of a Trump second term?’

A friend of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims Olivia Nuzzi was ‘obsessed’ with the former presidential candidate as she pursued him with photos and videos since her 2023 profile.

Nuzzi, a 31-year-old Washington correspondent for New York Magazine, was placed on leave after she’d admitted to her bosses to having an 'emotional and digital' affair with Kennedy.

It was later revealed she sent the 70-year-old scion nudes, described as ‘demure’ by a source who spoke to Puck News – the outlet to first report the story Friday night.

However, a Substack journalist and ‘friend’ of RFK Jr. says that this was part of a relentless campaign to woo him, though sources close to Nuzzi have claimed she was not the aggressor in the situation.

Jessica Read Kraus claims that her friend Kennedy first received contact from Nuzzi in November of 2023 after she’d published the story about going hiking with the presidential candidate.