Trump rallies in North Carolina as controversy engulfs his hand-picked candidate for governor
CNN
Donald Trump returns Saturday for a campaign rally in North Carolina, where the former president is confronting a mess he played a key role in making in the critical battleground state.
Donald Trump returns Saturday for a campaign rally in North Carolina, where the former president is confronting a mess he played a key role in making in the critical battleground state. The Republican nominee for governor, Mark Robinson – whom Trump has repeatedly compared to Martin Luther King Jr. – declined to drop out of the race by Thursday’s deadline, ignoring calls to do so from the NAACP, North Carolina newspaper editorial boards and some congressional Republicans. That pressure followed a CNN report detailing his history of inflammatory comments on a porn website’s message board. Robinson, the current North Carolina lieutenant governor, referred to himself as a “black NAZI,” expressed support for reinstating slavery, made repeated graphic sexual comments and more. Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, launched a new television advertisement Friday tying Trump to Robinson – the first time the Harris campaign has used an ad to connect the former president with a down-ballot candidate. The ad doesn’t mention Robinson’s offensive porn message board comments, but it intersperses Trump’s past praise for Robinson with some of the GOP gubernatorial nominee’s anti-abortion comments, including Robinson voicing support for a statewide abortion ban that would not include exceptions. It opens with clips of Trump calling Robinson “an unbelievable lieutenant governor” and referring to him as “better than Martin Luther King,” along with video of Robinson saying, “For me, there is no compromise on abortion” and “We could pass a bill and say, ‘You can’t have an abortion in North Carolina for any reason.’”
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that nearly 100,000 residents who may not have fulfilled the state’s proof-of-citizenship requirements can still vote in state and local races this year, quickly resolving how election officials should address a clerical glitch that had left the eligibility of those registered voters in question.
Facing intense criticism for promoting false claims that Haitian immigrants in the Ohio city of Springfield are abducting and eating other residents’ pets, Sen. JD Vance has tried to pivot by blaming Vice President Kamala Harris and the influx of Haitians during her vice presidency for a variety of broader social issues in Springfield.
Georgia election board requires ballots be hand-counted despite warning from key GOP state officials
Allies of former President Donald Trump who control the Georgia State Election Board approved a controversial new rule Friday requiring counties to hand-count the of ballots cast at polling places on Election Day, despite bipartisan objections from election officials and poll workers.
After a quarter-century hosting giant pandas, Zoo Atlanta is saying goodbye to its beloved residents. The zoo announced its four giant pandas: Lun Lun, Yang Yang, Ya Lun and Xi Lun will head home to China mid-October. Meanwhile, the San Diego Zoo welcomed two new pandas this summer, and the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington expects to become home to two bears by the end of 2024.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign on Friday launched a new television ad seeking to tie former President Donald Trump to North Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson, a day after a bombshell KFile report detailed a series of inflammatory comments Robinson made more than a decade ago.