Trump scraps another red-state rally as he shifts strategy ahead of midterms

President Donald Trump has scrapped plans for weekend rallies in red states Iowa and Kansas. He’s instead planning as many as 20 telerallies in a strategy shift days ahead of the midterm elections.

For now, the only in-person event Trump has planned is a rally in Florida on Friday.

More on this and other headlines:

Trump lashes out: The president said his decision to scrap the Kansas event had nothing to do with the GOP candidate’s electoral prospects or his own stamina, berating a reporter who asked about his health. Some top Republican officials quietly expressed relief. “He hasn’t moved the needle anywhere,” one said.

Alaska Senate race: State officials said that a judge should reject the Justice Department’s attempt to seize on the new revelations about the recruitment of a spoiler candidate in its Senate race. The DOJ has accelerated a criminal probe into whether Alaska Democrats sought to confuse voters, issuing dozens of new grand jury subpoenas and homing in on new potential charges, according to sources. Several residents in Anchorage told CNN the controversy is not influencing who they are voting for.

Robocall push: Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico responded to a recent push of AI-powered robocalls attacking his campaign, saying it is “pretty rich that they are using AI bots to attack me over data centers.” Talarico said he has criticized data centers that don’t “meet the demands of the people who live in these communities.”

Incendiary ad goes offline: The campaign of Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, is no longer running a controversial ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent Amy Acton. “It ran to completion, and we put up four other ads,” the Columbus Dispatch reported Ramaswamy as saying.

DOJ appeals ruling again: For a second time in a week, the Justice Department launched an emergency appeal of its case seeking to segregate ballots in California, based on a controversial list of 20,000 supposed noncitizens assembled by the Trump administration. It also issued federal grand jury subpoenas to local election officials.

CNN’s Gabe Cohen, Kylie Atwood, Patrick Svitek, Alayna Treene, Kevin Liptak, Tierney Sneed, Jeff Zeleny, Hannah Rabinowitz, Jeff Zeleny, Isa Mudannayake, Alejandra Jaramillo, Kaitlan Collins, Molly English, Ed Lavandera, Ashley Killough, Taylor Romine and Christian Sierra contributed reporting.

With less than a week before Election Day, Republicans and Democrats are racing to reach voters. Here’s what some high-profile politicians said at their Thursday events:

President Donald Trump rallied in South Carolina.

On Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed: Trump dubbed Black and Jewish voters supporting El-Sayed “crazy,” adding to a cacophony of attacks on the candidate related to his Muslim faith.

On polling: Trump slammed recent polling as “totally phony,” asking how many of his supporters had been polled.

Vice President JD Vance appeared in a Fox News town hall in Texas.

On $5K check promise: Vance defended Trump’s promise to give $5,000 to every US adult if they elect GOP congressional majorities, and claimed they would be different from the stimulus checks handed out under former president Joe Biden.

On Trump’s “ass” comments: Vance said it’s an example of a politician not “taking himself so seriously.” Trump has commented on Ohio Sen. Jon Husted’s derrière repeatedly.

An “exception” among GOP: Vance said he’s an “exception” within a Republican Party that’s not paying enough attention to young people’s affordability issues. He blamed illegal immigration and investors buying up homes for high prices.

On immigration: Vance argued that Democrats El-Sayed and James Talarico “reject the idea of assimilation.” He added: “This is why we have the immigration policy that we do.”

El-Sayed spoke at a rally in Kalamazoo.

On criticism of his Muslim faith: El-Sayed spent a good chunk of time attacking Trump but tried to bring the focus back to affordability. “My name and my faith are not the reason you can’t afford your groceries,” he said.

On joint appearance with former rival: El-Sayed brushed aside questions about why it has taken him so long to invite his Democratic primary rival, Rep. Haley Stevens, to join him on the campaign trail. They are set to make a rare joint appearance on Sunday after reports of tensions.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris was in Atlanta, Georgia for back-to-back events.

Criticism of Trump administration: Harris said the administration was “lining their pockets on the backs of working people of America” and that it showed “a level of cruelty like we have never seen and a level of hypocrisy.” Her comments parallel that of former president Barack Obama, who earlier blasted Trump for years of “chaos, and cruelty, and corruption.”

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny, Patrick Svitek, Alejandra Jaramillo, Kaitlan Collins, Molly English, Christian Sierra, Tierney Sneed, Tori B. Powell and Taylor Romine contributed reporting.

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Do Democrats still have a shot at the Senate if Alaska effort backfires?

2:59 • Source: CNN

Do Democrats still have a shot at the Senate if Alaska effort backfires?

2:59

Alaska officials said that a judge should the reject the Justice Department’s attempt to seize on the new revelations about the recruitment of a spoiler candidate in the state’s Senate race, arguing Thursday the Trump administration’s revamped lawsuit seeking to potentially block certification suffers the same flaws as its original complaint.

Alaska said that “even assuming the worst” about the “motives” of Daniel J. Sullivan, a candidate who has the same name as the GOP incumbent, the Justice Department established no legal right for a federal court to intervene.

“Nor does Daniel J. wanting to confuse voters say anything about whether he will succeed in doing so,” Alaska said in the Thursday court filing, noting the steps election officials took to distinguish Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan from Daniel J. Sullivan in how they were identified on the ballot.

The Alaska officials noted that even in the reworked lawsuit, the DOJ had not provided any evidence of voters casting ballots for the wrong Sullivans.

They accused the DOJ of “gamesmanship” in filing the amended complaint, which restarted a round of briefing over whether the case should be thrown out. They’re asking Judge Sharon Gleason to keep case’s timeline on track for her to rule by Monday

“This will ensure that Alaskans heading to the ballot box (as well as those who have already voted) have confidence that their votes will count and the U.S. Senate election result will be timely certified free from unlawful interference by the United States,” they wrote.

Vice President JD Vance defended President Donald Trump’s promise to give $5,000 to every US adult if they elect GOP congressional majorities — a proposal that’s faced some criticism on the right, including for its price tag and potential to exacerbate inflationary pressures.

During a Fox News town hall on Thursday, a member of the audience pressed Vance on how those $5,000 checks would be different from stimulus money handed out under former President Joe Biden — whom, the questioner noted, the Trump administration has routinely blamed for inflation.

“First of all, what we’re talking doing is not green energy boondoggles. What the president has said is that Americans ought to be able to keep more of their money,” Vance said.

“So I think it’s much different to tell Americans you can keep more of your own tax dollars than we’re going to give billions and billions of dollars to a green energy scam that’s going to drive up prices, bankrupt a lot of people and fundamentally not actually help that many Americans, if any at all,” he added.

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El-Sayed addresses frequent attacks on his faith: 'I am Muslim'

During a campaign rally, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed addressed comments from his opponents criticizing his faith, saying, “Let me just tell you, I am Muslim.”

1:17 • Source: CNN

El-Sayed addresses frequent attacks on his faith: 'I am Muslim'

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As Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed spends his last days on the campaign trail, he used Thursday night’s rally to address comments from his opponents criticizing his faith, saying, “let me just tell you, I am Muslim.”

“And I’m an American who believes in the Constitution, and that that shouldn’t matter, because it doesn’t matter how you pray or if you pray at all,” El-Sayed said during a rally in Kalamazoo, Michigan. “We all believe in an America big enough for all of us, unless of course you are the president or vice president.”

El-Sayed spent a good chunk of time attacking President Donald Trump instead of his opponent, GOP nominee Mike Rogers. He mentioned Trump’s recent comments calling El-Sayed “Muhammad” or “Ramadan,” but tried to bring it back to his focus on affordability.

But despite the frequent attacks focusing on his identity, El-Sayed said the people of Michigan “take our differences as an invitation for a conversation” and are “open-hearted.”

“It’s time for us to build out the Michigan we deserve. A Michigan that is bigger than their hate. A Michigan that is bigger than their smallness,” he said.

President Donald Trump is scrapping plans to headline rallies this weekend in Iowa and Kansas, which officials say will allow him to conduct more tele-rallies.

But that’s a lot different than the last time he was president and fighting to get GOP candidates across the finish line.

In the final 72 hours before the 2018 midterms on November 6, Trump held seven rallies in as many states, a review of news reports at the time shows. He went to Montana, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana and Missouri.

“The reason is, I don’t feel I have to go to Kansas. I’m going to Florida tomorrow, and I’ll do — if something else comes up,” he said. “But he said, ‘You’re not going to Kansas, sir. Are you feeling well?’ You’ve been following me for two weeks. I feel perfect.”

At a rally earlier in the day, Trump had boasted about how hard he was working on the trail.

“The one thing I can say is that no president has ever worked so hard on a midterm. You know, most presidents, including me, the first couple of times, you sort of take it easy, stay home,” he said.