Election 2024 live: Trump speaks in Detroit as Obama hits campaign trail for Harris

Eric Garcia reports from Greensboro, North Carolina:

Many have wondered whether CNN’s bombshell report showing that North Carolina gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson allegedly regularly commented on a pornography site called Nude Africa, where he called himself a “black NAZI” and expressed his preference for pornography with transgender women despite his rampant transphobia, would affect the presidential election.

Donald Trump has regularly praised Robinson, though he stiff-armed him at a rally in Wilmington. It comes as North Carolina is a must-win state for both Kamala Harris and Trump’s campaigns. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, is in Greensboro tonight for a town hall.

But ultimately, it’s unclear whether it will have an effect. What is clear is that Democrats in the state running for lower offices are seeking to tie their opponents to Robinson.

Rachel Hunt, the Democratic nominee for Robinson’s current job of lieutenant governor, released an ad asking “Who’s worse than Mark Robinson?” Before answering “his choice for lieutenant governor Hal Weatherman,” highlighting how he had mocked rape victims by saying “girls can be teases.”

The ad ends with Hunt, the daughter of former four-term governor Jim Hunt, opening a janitor’s closet.

“And since I’m moving into Robinson’s office, I’ll start with a gallon of this,” holding a bottle of hydrogen peroxide.

Former President Barack Obama will make his case for Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday night during a rally at a Pittsburgh college campus, as Democrats seek to spur young people to vote in the Nov. 5 election.

Obama has been a vocal supporter of Harris since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden stepped aside in July following a poor debate performance against Republican former President Donald Trump.

Obama, whose White House term ended in 2017, is still popular with his party’s base. His rally at the University of Pittsburgh, which he will headline while Harris campaigns in Nevada and Arizona, is the first of several events he plans to do in battleground states across the country in the coming weeks.

Obama is not the only former president the Harris campaign plans to deploy.

Bill Clinton, a two-term Democratic president and former Arkansas governor, will make stops in Georgia on Sunday and Monday before traveling to North Carolina for a bus tour later in the week in an effort to reach rural voters.

In remarks slated to begin around 7:15 pm ET (2315 GMT), Obama will say Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, her running mate, are uniquely positioned to lead the United States at this moment, according to his adviser Eric Schultz.

“He’ll also talk about the enormous stakes and the risks involved in returning President Trump into office,” Schultz said.

Youth are a critical part of the coalition that the Harris campaign hopes will propel her to victory. But voter registration among young people in 34 states is down compared with four years ago, according to data updated in September from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University.

The number of people between the ages of 18 and 29 who are registered to vote in Pennsylvania in September was 15 percent lower than it was on Election Day in 2020, the center’s data showed.

Obama’s engagement could help get young people motivated in the campaign’s final stretch. The former president has sought to serve as a closer for Democratic candidates before, with events for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and for Biden in 2020, especially at the end of the election cycle when early voting had begun, as it has now.

Obama is focused on voters who can put the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate in Democratic hands, another aide said. The former president has helped raise $80 million for the 2024 presidential campaign.

Obama and his wife Michelle gave rousing speeches in support of Harris at the Democratic National Convention in August; the former first lady is expected to campaign further for Harris as well.

Harris was an early supporter of Barack Obama’s own 2008 presidential bid, and he has helped her behind the scenes as the party’s 2024 standard-bearer, encouraging her to tap talent to bolster her campaign, which she did.

The former president is viewed by some as having helped usher Biden out of the race after Democrats’ worries about the 81-year-old leader’s age and abilities skyrocketed after his June debate against Trump.

Harris and Trump remain in a close race, and winning Pennsylvania could be key to winning the White House.

Rhian Lubin has the story.

After today’s gaffe, Democrats have another weapon to attack Trump with on the economy in the crucial swing state of Michigan. Here’s how they took action ahead of the former president’s speech today.

Former President Barack Obama will campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris this evening in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

In the meantime, here’s Donald Trump this afternoon claiming he would have been awarded a Nobel Prize if he was named Obama.

A Kremlin spokesperson said that Donald Trump’s administration did send Russian president Vladimir Putin medical equipment during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, despite Trump’s campaign denying any exchange took place.

Moscow also denied that Putin spoke on the phone with Trump seven times after he left office in 2021, according to a state news agency.

Graig Graziosi has the story.