Harris follows Oprah event with crucial swing state visit as Trump tries to dodge scandal-plagued Republican: Live

With the Federal Reserve trimming interest rates for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic and inflation rates slipping to pre-Covid levels, President Joe Biden is taking a moment to savor the victory with a speech to the Economic Club of Washington on Thursday.

Biden said the decision by the Fed to cut rates after years of post-pandemic inflation led them to raise them from the near-zero levels they were at during the worst days of Covid represented a “good day for the country” and “good news for consumers” because borrowing costs will come down.

Andrew Feinberg reports from Washington, DC.

Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, denounced in a heartfelt op-ed the onslaught of attacks by Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, against Haitian migrants in Springfield that have made the city the “epicenter of vitriol over America’s immigration policy.”

This month, Trump and Vance perpetuated groundless claims that Haitian migrants to Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating residents’ cats and dogs. Despite city officials and police officers calling the claims unsubstantiated, the allegations spread like wildfire and Springfield endured a barrage of threats, while the city’s migrant community faced racist remarks.

In an emotional op-ed in The New York Times on Friday, DeWine said it was “disappointing” that the 58,000-person city “has become the epicenter of vitriol over America’s immigration policy, because it has long been a community of great diversity.”

Kelly Rissman reports.

Andrew Feinberg writes:

Comfortable in khakis and an open collar, Walz couldn’t be more different from JD Vance, the awkward man in a boxy suit and an overly long tie. Instead of talking about ‘threats to democracy’, Harris’s running-mate made a football analogy about January 6th — and it went down a storm.

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The Republican-controlled Georgia State Election Board has given the green light to a controversial voting measure that local officials warned against.

The new rule requires local precincts to hand count the upcoming November election results and match them to the machine counts before certifying them.

Gustaf Kilander has the details.

Jimmy Kimmel has ridiculed Donald Trump over his obsession with crowd sizes.

During his latest rally in Uniondale, Long Island, the former president boasted that he draws bigger crowds than Elvis Presley.

“So I call up my wife, and I’d say, ‘Baby, who can draw crowds like me’,” Trump told attendees. “Nobody, nobody can. I’m the greatest of all time, maybe greater even than Elivs. Elvis had a guitar. I don’t have the privilege of a guitar.”

Finishing Trump’s thought on the latest episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the late-night host joked: “Thanks to my tiny baby hands, I am unable to play the guitar.”

Inga Parkel has more.

Texas Democrat Jasmine Crockett defended Kamala Harris after the head of the Federal Communications Commission criticized the Biden-Harris administration’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Kelly Rissman reports on what she had to say.

North Carolina’s Republican candidate for governor, Mark Robinson, referred to himself as a “black Nazi” and said “slavery is good,” among other shocking remarks, on a porn forum, according to reporting from CNN’s KFile.

Earlier on Thursday, independent journalist Bryan Anderson had said that Robinson’s campaign was bearing down a negative story about to break. A few hours later, CNN’s KFile reported that he had an account on a porn site called “Nude Africa” where the anti-transgender conservative admitted that “I like watching tranny on girl porn!”

The social conservative, who has taken a stance against promiscuity in the past, wrote: “yeah, I’m a perv too,” and reportedly said on the same site when told that a celebrity had had an abortion: “I don’t care. I just wanna see the tape!”

Robinson denies the allegations and told CNN that the account they had found on the porn site was not his.

Eric Garcia and John Bowden report.

Citing a lack of resources of prenatal resources for women in southern states, Harris says: “These hypocrites want to start talking about this is in the best interest of women and children. Well, where have you been? Where have you been when it comes to taking care of the women and children of America?”