LIVE UPDATES: Harris and Trump Target Michigan As Polls Show Tight Race

Harris criticizes Trump for ‘ducking debates and canceling interviews’

Harris has criticized Trump for “ducking debates and canceling interviews.” She said during a Michigan town hall that his campaign team said it was due to exhaustion.

“If you are exhausted on the campaign trail,” she told the audience, “it raises real questions about whether you are fit for the toughest job in the world.”

Bret Baier admits ‘mistake’ with Trump clips during Harris interview

Bret Baier, host of Fox News’ Special Report, has admitted that the wrong clip was used during his exclusive interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. This comes after the Harris campaign pointed out clip issue on X.

During a sometimes intense interview, Baier pressed the Democratic presidential nominee regarding the Biden administration’s stances on immigration, crime, and transgender health. They also debated whether Trump, her Republican rival, poses a risk to American democracy.

In an interview aired on Sunday, Trump spoke with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, who inquired about remarks made by President Joe Biden. The president stated earlier this month that he was uncertain whether the 2024 presidential election would occur without unrest.

On Thursday, Baier said his intention during Harris’ interview had been to play both clips, showing Trump talking about “the enemy from within” and responding to the criticism about his comments, but that this didn’t happen.

The Fox News host said: “I did make a mistake, and I want to say that mistake. When I called for a sound-bite, I was expecting a piece of the ‘enemy from within’ from Maria Bartiromo’s interview to be tied to the piece from your town hall, Harris, where you asked the former president about the ‘enemy from within.'”

During Harris’ interview, only Trump’s comments responding to the criticism at the town hall were aired, not his original statements to Bartiromo.

Read More: Bret Baier Says He ‘Made a Mistake’ in Kamala Harris Fox News Interview

Michelle Obama slated to join Harris on Michigan campaign trail

Former First Lady Michelle Obama is set to join Kamala Harris in Michigan for a get-out-the-vote rally in the state.

Lizzo and Usher will join the campaign as well on Saturday.

Elon Musk at town hall: ‘Politicians seem to forget that the money being spent is your money’

Elon Musk spoke at a town hall in Pennsylvania yesterday, telling people: “Politicians seem to forget that the money being spent is your money and if it’s not being spent in a way that is beneficial to the American people, it is a misuse of the funds.”

Donald Trump just made ‘sharply self-incriminating’ statement—legal analyst

Former President Donald Trump made a statement that was “sharply self-incriminating” during his town hall with Univision on Wednesday, according to legal analyst and former U.S. assistant attorney Glenn Kirschner on Thursday.

Trump, the Republican nominee, answered questions from undecided Latino and Hispanic voters during a town hall in Florida hosted by the Spanish-language network Univision.

In a similar town hall the previous week, Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, took part in a discussion hosted by the same network. Both candidates are actively engaging with important voter demographics in swing states, such as Nevada and Arizona, which have notable Latino and Hispanic populations.

Questions from the audience covered topics ranging from abortion to immigration and the January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.

In a YouTube video posted Thursday, Kirschner, a MSNBC legal analyst and frequent Trump critic, said the former president’s comments about the riot during the town hall were “sharply self-incriminating” because Trump used the “royal we” when describing the insurrection.

On January 6, thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory amid unfounded claims from Trump that the election was stolen from him via widespread voter fraud. One rioter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and later died, and dozens of police were injured.

Kirschner turned to a transcript of Trump’s response to Ramiro González, a 56-year-old construction worker with Cuban heritage, who told Trump at the Univision town hall that he is a former Republican who is no longer registered.

“I want to give you the opportunity to try and win back my vote,” González said to Trump. “Your action and maybe inaction, during your presidency and maybe the last few years, sort of, was a little disturbing to me.”

He added: “What happened during January 6, and the fact that you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the Capitol.”

Kirschner then read out Trump’s answer, saying, “Ashli Babbitt was killed. Nobody was killed. There were no guns down there. We didn’t have guns. The others had guns, but we didn’t have guns.”

Read More: Donald Trump Just Made ‘Sharply Self-Incriminating’ Statement—Legal Analyst

Elon Musk offers Pennsylvania voters $100 each as he drums up Trump support

Elon Musk is offering $100 to registered voters in Pennsylvania to sign a pro-Donald Trump petition.

“If you’re a registered Pennsylvania voter, you & whoever referred you will now get $100 for signing our petition in support of free speech & right to bear arms. Earn money for supporting something you already believe in,” the SpaceX CEO wrote to his more than 200 million followers on X, formerly Twitter.

Musk linked to America PAC, a political action organization he founded in support of Trump’s presidential campaign.

The petition reads, “The First and Second Amendments guarantee freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. By signing below, I am pledging my support for the First and Second Amendments.”

It offers a further $47 for each subsequent registered voter someone refers to the petition. While this requires a signed IRS form for payments of $600 or more, there appears to be no limit on the number of registered voters that can be referred.

The stated goal of the petition is to register 1 million voters across swing states, only allowing registered voters in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina to sign and claim $100 before the offer expires on October 21 (the deadline for voter registration).

Similarly, the America PAC homepage is recruiting people who “are interested in working on increasing voter registration and voter turnout” for $30 an hour and “bonuses for performance.”

While federal law dictates that paying individuals to vote or accepting payment for voter registration or voting is an offense, compensating people for signing petitions or convincing others to sign petitions is not against the law.

Campaign finance lawyer Brendan Fischer told The New York Times that “the fact that they are only paying the referrer rather than the signatory further insulates the PAC from any accusations that they are buying votes,” adding that America PAC is spending money to collect voter data, which is what standard PACs and campaigns routinely do.

Musk posted details of the petition shortly after hosting an America Pac town hall in Pennsylvania that was streamed live on X, receiving 8.5 million views.

During the broadcast the Tesla CEO said, “I can’t emphasize enough that Pennsylvania is, I think the linchpin in this election, and this election, I think, is going to decide the fate of America, and along with the fate of America, the fate of Western civilization.”

Read More: Elon Musk Offers Pennsylvania Voters $100 Each As He Drums Up Trump Support

Trump: ‘We’re going to take the Department of Education, close it’

Donald Trump said that he plans on closing the Department of Education if he wins the election.

“We’re going to take the Department of Education, close it; I’m going to close it,” he said during his interview with Fox & Friends Friday morning. “We’ll have one person—could be you if you decide to retire,” he joked, nudging co-host of the show Steve Doocy.

Michigan polling data makes revelations

There are three weeks remaining until Election Day, and Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are in Michigan this week, where polls indicate the race is very close within the margin of error.

According to FiveThirtyEight’s poll tracker, Harris is slightly leading Trump in this crucial battleground state, with 47.7 percent to the former president’s 47.1 percent, giving her a narrow lead of 0.6 points. Pollster Nate Silver’s tracker shows her leading by 0.7 points.

On the other hand, the RealClearPolitics tracker reports that Trump is slightly in front in the state, ahead by 0.9 points, having taken the lead over Harris on October 9.

Individual polls reveal that the competition is just as tight, with the latest RMG Research/Napolitan Institute poll, conducted from October 10 to 16, indicating a tie between the candidates. Recent surveys by Mitchell Research and Communications and Redfield and Wilton Strategies also showed the race tied when considering third-party candidates.

Other polls indicate that Harris and Trump are within 1 or 2 points of each other, comfortably within the margin of error. For instance, the recent Morning Consult poll, carried out between October 6 and 15 among 1,065 likely voters, showed Harris ahead by 2 points, which falls within the poll’s margin of error of +/-3 percentage points.

Another survey conducted by Insider Advantage from October 8 to 9 among 800 potential voters indicated that Trump was ahead by 2 points. The poll had a margin of error of 3.7 percent. Newsweek has reached out to both the Trump and Harris campaigns for comments via email.

In this closely contested race, Harris and Trump are both making stops in Michigan this week, with Trump planning to visit Oakland County on Friday and hold a rally in Detroit later that evening, while Harris will be making her sixth visit to the state since becoming the candidate, stopping in Grand Rapids, Lansing, and Oakland County on Friday, as confirmed by Harris campaign spokesperson Alyssa Bradley on Sunday.

The View host Alyssa Farah Griffin calls Trump ‘incredible’ for bragging about Nikki Haley win

Alyssa Farah Griffin, one of the hosts of The View, called Trump “incredible” for bragging about his win over Nikki Haley in the primaries. Trump was asked during his interview at Fox & Friends if he would seek help from Haley in the final 18 days left to the election.

“I’ll do what I have to do,” said the former president. “Let me just tell you: Nikki Haley and I fought and I beat her by 50, 60, 90 points. I beat her in her own state by numbers nobody’s ever been beaten by; I beat Nikki Haley, I beat everyone else, too. Badly.”

Kamala Harris trolls Trump with Fox News interview ratings on Truth Social

Vice President Kamala Harris taunted former President Donald Trump on his social media platform, Truth Social, highlighting that her recent Fox News interview garnered more than double his ratings on the same day.

On Wednesday, both Harris and Trump appeared in separate interviews on the network. Harris and Fox News host Bret Baier engaged in an at times charged exchange, while Trump participated in a town hall with women voters in Georgia.

On Thursday, Harris’ official campaign account posted a split image showing Harris smiling in front of two microphones and Trump appearing fatigued. The caption above their heads read: “Harris on Fox yesterday: 7.1 million viewers. Trump on Fox yesterday: 3 million viewers.” Harris’ campaign captioned the post, “have you seen this, @realdonaldtrump?”

Newsweek has reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment via email on Friday.

The numbers are based off Nielson Media Research data published by Fox News. Harris’ interview with Baier was the most-watched interview of the 2024 election season, and the top program on cable news on Wednesday.

Trump, the Republican nominee, has often praised the outlet and been welcomed by many of its hosts, while Harris is frequently criticized on the network. Daytime programming typically draws fewer viewers than evening shows, and Trump appears on Fox News regularly, especially compared to Harris, for whom this was her first appearance on the network.

Read More: Kamala Harris Trolls Trump With Fox News Interview Ratings on Truth Social

Watch: Harris’s video for Al Smith dinner

Watch the video Kamala Harris sent to the Al Smith dinner in her stead Thursday evening.

Donald Trump’s team denies he’s ‘exhausted’ as he ducks media interviews

Donald Trump’s team has denied claims that he is turning down media interviews because he is “exhausted.”

Trump’s campaign was in talks with The Shade Room, an online media platform, to arrange a sit-down interview, which ended up failing to materialize.

A Trump adviser told the media company that the Republican nominee was “exhausted and refusing [some] interviews but that could change,” Politico’s Playbook reported, citing two people familiar with the conversations.

Trump’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that he was exhausted in a statement to Playbook, saying: “President Trump is running laps around Kamala Harris on the campaign trail.”

“And has done media interviews every day this week. He has more energy and a harder work ethic than anyone in politics.”

Trump’s decision to skip an interview with The Shade Room comes after he also declined to participate in a 60 Minutes election special. Harris sat for interviews with both outlets.

The former president also has backed out of loosely planned talks with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and NBC. His campaign gave Playbook explanations for why these were canceled, including an overbooked schedule and an objection to 60 Minutes‘ live fact-checking.

Leavitt told Playbook that claims that Trump was backing out of media appearances were “B.S.”

“President Trump has never backed down from any interview. This is a man who held a CNN town hall in the middle of the Republican primary, for goodness’ sake,” she said.

Read More: Donald Trump’s Team Denies He’s ‘Exhausted’ as He Ducks Media Interviews

Lizzo and Usher join Harris on campaign

Usher and Lizzo will be joining Vice President Kamala Harris at a pair of rallies this weekend. Lizzo will appear at a Detroit rally with the presidential candidate on Saturday for a get-out-the-vote event. For his part, Usher will join Harris later in the day for another rally in Atlanta, per a campaign official.

The campaign is looking for the singers to appeal to Black voters.

Donald Trump’s tariffs would hit his own businesses

Donald Trump’s proposals to put large tariffs on the sale of foreign goods in the United States could end up hitting his own businesses, with Newsweek finding products sold by the Republican presidential nominee were made in China, Vietnam and Bangladesh.

During his presidential campaign, Trump has called for tariffs of 10-20 percent on “countries that have been ripping us off,” along with tariffs of at least 60 percent on products from China specifically. Speaking at the Economic Club of Chicago on Tuesday, Trump suggested he could introduce tariffs of up to 2,000 percent on some foreign cars, commenting: “If I’m going to be president of this country I’m going to put a 100, 200, 2,000 percent tariff.”

He said the tariffs would force companies to build more factories in the U.S., boosting jobs. However, economic experts told Newsweek tariffs would lead to higher prices for American consumers.

When Newsweek reporter Jesus Mesa visited Trump Tower in Manhattan on October 11, he found a wide range of Trump-branded merchandise was for sale that was labeled as being made outside the United States. These included drinking flasks, jackets, baseball caps, and woolly hats made in China, shirts and jackets made in Vietnam, and towels from Bangladesh.

Newsweek contacted representatives of the Trump Organization and Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential election campaign for comment via email.

Read More: Donald Trump’s Tariffs Would Hit His Own Businesses

Trump had ‘a lot of people’ help him with his Al Smith speech jokes

Donald Trump admitted that he had “a lot of people help” him write his Al Smith speech and the jokes he told in it.

“A couple of people from Fox, actually. I shouldn’t say that, but they wrote some jokes, and for the most part, I didn’t like any of them,” the former president said in his Friday morning interview with Fox & Friends.

Trump says he wants to talk to Rupert Murdoch about negative ads

Donald Trump blasted Fox News in an interview for airing negative campaign ads about him. He also said that he seeks to speak directly to businessman Rupert Murdoch on the topic.

“In the old days, you never played negative ads. In other words, when I leave here, I’ll then be hit by five or six ads,” Trump said on his Friday interview with Fox & Friends. One of the show’s hosts, Brian Kilmeade, questioned whether he meant Fox News, and Trump said, “When I leave, I’ll have 12 people from Kamala on, and pretty much unopposed,” Trump said. “For 19 days, I don’t think we should do that anymore. I think you shouldn’t play negative ads. It’s very tough.”

“You do a show — and I complain all the time. I love complaining,” the former president added. “I like to have everything perfect. But when I leave here … it’s sort of a net neutral.”

“I’m going to see Rupert Murdoch,” he said. “I don’t know if he’s thrilled that I say it … and I’m going to tell him something very simple … don’t put on negative commercials for 21 days and don’t put on … they’re horrible people that come on and lie. I’m going to say, ‘Rupert, please do it this way.'”

Bret Baier gaining thousands of followers after Kamala Harris interview

Fox News anchor Bret Baier is gaining thousands of followers after interviewing Kamala Harris earlier this week.

Harris appeared on Baier’s show Special Report on October 16.

The interview was described by Newsweek as “fiery and contentious.” It featured many interruptions and tough questions from Baier, while Harris also pushed back against the interviewer. 7.1 million viewers tuned in to watch the exchange, which may have helped her win over swing voters, and increase Baier’s visibility too.

On the day of the interview, Baier gained 1,660 followers on Instagram, according to the social analytics tracker SocialBlade. The following day, as clips from the interview circulated online, he gained 7,286; he has so far gained an additional 5,019 on October 18. In the day before the interview he also gained 953 followers. This marks a significant change compared to the two weeks prior, which saw his following fluctuate by under 60 followers per day.

His Instagram following now stands at 594,000, and he has uploaded six separate posts about the interview so far.

Read More: Bret Baier Gaining Thousands of Followers After Kamala Harris Interview

Kennedy posted about potentially being in the USDA under Trump’s administration

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. shared a tweet earlier this week detailing his plan for “when @realDonaldTrump gets me inside the USDA.”

Trump confirms he will give RFK Jr. a job in administration if he wins election

Former President Donald Trump said on Friday that if he regains the presidency, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be offered a position in his administration. Trump also spoke of the possible partnership with the descendant of a Democratic political family when asked during an interview on Fox & Friends about potential candidates for key positions in his administration if he wins the election.

“He’s going to be a part of it,” Trump said about Kennedy. “He had a big impact because he’s very much into women’s health and health, and he’s very much into the environment, which a lot of people like. People really like him.”

Mark Cuban gives Trump ‘a little bit credit’ about tariffs while campaigning with Harris

Mark Cuban spoke at a La Crosse, Wisconsin rally while campaigning with Kamala Harris, where he talked about tariffs and tried to give Trump “a little bit credit.”

Auto workers’ union dares Donald Trump to do job he says is easy

Aworker at a vehicle assembly plant has challenged Donald Trump to do her job for a day after he said it is easy work.

The comments were made in a video posted to the United Auto Workers (UAW) account on X, formerly Twitter. The account quoted a post by the Kamala Harris campaign account which showed a clip of Trump speaking with Bloomberg‘s editor in chief John Micklethwait at the Economic Club of Chicago Tuesday.

In reference to car manufacturing, Trump said: “They build everything in Germany and then they assemble it here, they get away with murder because they say, ‘Oh yes we’re building cars.’ They don’t build cars, they take them out of a box, and they assemble them, we could have our child do it.”

The union’s response showed a video of a worker identified as Dawnya Ferdinansen, who said, “I am an 18-year UAW member in good standing. I’m making this video in response to Trump’s statement that auto workers ‘just assemble parts’ out of a box. I challenge you, Trump, to one full 12-hour day in any auto assembly plant. I want to see you assemble parts ‘out of a box’ for 12 hours.”

Read More: Auto Workers’ Union Dares Donald Trump To Do Job He Says Is Easy

Sunny Hostin: ‘Sometimes there’s a time to break tradition’

The hosts of The View voiced their disapproval of the Al Smith dinner for including former President Donald Trump, claiming the event should have set a precedent by not inviting him. They shared their gratitude that Vice President Kamala Harris chose to skip the event.

“I hate to break with tradition, because this is a tradition, and it’s a tradition to have both presidential candidates come to this particular dinner,” Sunny Hostin said. “But sometimes there’s a time to break tradition. You can’t have a felon, a liar, a serial cheater.”

Co-host Sara Haines disagreed, however, arguing he should be invited as the Republican candidate.

“Being the lead Republican candidate that was nominated by his party, whether I agree or not, they need to be there, because why tell people he’s crazy,” Haines said. “We benched him. Let him speak for himself.”

Harris’s pre-recorded Al Smith video called ‘cringe’

Trending Politics co-owner Colin Rugg called the pre-recorded video Harris sent to the Al Smith dinner in her stead “cringe’ in a post to X.

N.Y. Mayor Eric Adams gets a bid of good luck from Trump

President Donald Trump told N.Y. Mayor Eric Adams, who was in attendance at last night’s Al Smith charity dinner, that he wishes him good luck in the midst of Adams’s indictment.

“You’re going to win, I think you’re going to win, I know you’re going to win, so good luck,” Trump told the mayor. “Good luck. I don’t like what they do.”

Trump comes for Harris for skipping Al Smith dinner

Donald Trump attacked Kamala Harris in his speech at the Al Smith charity dinner, ripping into her family and improperly saying her name. Harris notably skipped the event to make an appearance at Wisconsin, the battleground state, for the sixth time since starting her campaign for president.

“Right now, we have someone in the White House who can barely talk, barely put together two coherent sentences, who seems to have the mental faculties of a child. There’s a person that has nothing going. No intelligence whatsoever,” Trump said in his speech. “But enough about Kamala Harris.”

Marc Anthony endorses Kamala Harris

Singer Marc Anthony appeared in a campaign ad supporting Kamala Harris, saying that he remembers how things were when Donald Trump was president in 2016. He also pointed to the devastation left in Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria in 2017, and how Trump “blocked billions in relief while thousands died.”

Trump was ‘surprised’ that Harris skipped Al Smith dinner

In an appearance on Fox & Friends this morning, Donald Trump said to the hosts that his opponent “unusually didn’t show up. You would’ve thought she would’ve shown up. We were surprised,” Trump added. “We were all surprised.”

Harris did not attend, but she did send a pre-recorded video message starring Molly Shannon, who reprised her Saturday Night Live character catholic student Mary Katherine Gallagher.