The Latest: Trump campaigns in Michigan, Wisconsin; Harris will have sit-down interview with CNN

Former President Donald Trump is campaigning Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin as he ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will sit down Thursday for the first major television interview of their presidential campaign as the duo travels in southeast Georgia on a bus tour.

The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash will give Harris a chance to quell criticism that she has eschewed uncontrolled environments.

Follow the AP’s Election 2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the Latest:

Trump calls the GOP ‘a leader’ on IVF. The reality is more complex.

Trump has repeatedly called the Republican party a “leader” on IVF this month — a claim many IVF experts and medical ethicists have refuted by pointing to what they say is an innate tension between support for IVF and for the laws granting legal personhood to fetuses and embryos that are pillared by many GOP lawmakers.

At least 23 bills aiming to establish fetal personhood have been introduced in 13 states so far this legislative session, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. This type of legislation, based on the idea that life begins at conception, could imperil fertility treatments that involve the storage, transportation and destruction of embryos.

Reproductive rights legal experts also warn of the potential that Trump, if elected, would appoint judges who support fetal personhood, which may lead to restrictions on IVF down the line.

“That’s a very real risk that we could see the impacts through court rulings a few years down the line,” said Kimberly Mutcherson, a professor of reproductive rights, bioethics and health law at Rutgers Law School.

How an Alabama supreme court ruling brought IVF into the spotlight

In Alabama, clinics paused IVF treatments after the all-conservative state supreme court granted frozen embryos the legal rights of children in February. Soon after, Alabama’s Republican governor signed legislation shielding doctors from legal liability so that IVF procedures could continue in the state.

In the weeks after the ruling, congressional Republicans rushed to appear unified in support for the fertility treatment, despite histories of voting for fetal personhood laws many medical ethicists and legal experts say are legally inconsistent with IVF access.

These attempts at unity on the issue have also been complicated by opposition from anti-abortion leaders, including members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus who have objected to expanding IVF access for veterans, and by Senate Republicans blocking legislation that would have made IVF access a federal right.

Trump indicates opposition to Florida’s six-week abortion ban

In an interview with NBC, Trump seemed to indicate that he will vote to repeal Florida’s six-week abortion ban that was signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year.

The former president told NBC that banning the procedure after six weeks is “too short,” and that “it has to be more time.”

“I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” Trump said.

Florida voters, of which Trump is one, will get to vote on a ballot measure in November that legalizes abortion until fetal viability. That would expand the right even beyond the prior ban on abortion at 15 weeks that Florida had in place before its newest law.

Trump has previously called DeSantis’ signing of the six-week ban a “terrible mistake.” But he has also taken credit for appointing U.S. Supreme Court justices who overturned nationwide abortion rights and called it “a beautiful thing to watch” as states set their own laws.

Trump has shifted his position on abortion over the years but his current stance is that restrictions should be left to the states. His running mate JD Vance said in a recent interview that Trump would not support a national abortion ban if elected president and would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk.

Harris dismisses Trump’s false suggestion that she misled voters about her race

The vice president was asked by CNN about Trump falsely saying he only learned she was Black a few years ago because she’d always promoted her Indian heritage.

She responded to CNN’s Dana Bash with, “same old, tired playbook” and “next question, please.”

Trump made the false statement during a July interview during the National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago. Harris is the first woman, and first Black and Asian American person to be elected vice president. She is now the first Black woman and first Asian American person to be the presidential nominee of a major political party.

Harris’ mother and father were immigrants from India and Jamaica, respectively. She’s a graduate of Howard University, a preeminent historically Black institution in the U.S. She pledged to a historically Black sorority and was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus when she was a U.S. senator.

Trump says he’d ‘rather get’ the Medal of Freedom

Trump recently came under criticism for the way he discussed the Congressional Medal of Honor, the military’s highest decoration for service members.

Praising billionaire Republican donor Miriam Adelson, whom he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, Trump said she fared “much better” than receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor because recipients of that award are often badly injured or dead.

Despite the Veterans of Foreign Wars admonishing Trump by calling his comments “flippant” and “asinine,” he repeated a version of the remark at his campaign event in Michigan, saying he’d “rather get” the Medal of Freedom because the Medal of Honor recipients “often times they’ve suffered greatly, right? They’ve suffered greatly or they’re not around.”

Trump says he wants government or insurance companies to cover IVF treatment

Former President Donald Trump says that, if he wins a second term, he wants to make IVF treatment free for families.

“I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said at an event in Michigan. “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.”

IVF treatments are notoriously expensive and can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single round.

He also said that new parents will be allowed to deduct expenses on caring for newborns from their taxes. “We’re pro-family,” he said.

The announcement comes as Trump has been under intense criticism from Democrats for his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the Constitutional right to an abortion.

The decision is expected to be a major motivator for Democrats this November.

Harris insists Trump will sign a national abortion ban

Kamala Harris said at a rally Thursday in Savannah that Donald Trump does not trust women and insists the former president will sign a national abortion ban.

“If he wins, Donald Trump will go forward. He will sign a national abortion ban you best believe.”

Trump has said abortion should be left up to the states, but he’s also taken credit for appointing the judges on the Supreme Court who created a conservative majority and overturned federal abortion protections.

Pop group ABBA asked Trump to stop using their songs. Trump team says they have the OK.

Swedish supergroup ABBA has asked Donald Trump to stop using their music at campaign rallies, but the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign says it has permission.

“ABBA has recently discovered the unauthorized use of their music and videos at a Trump event through videos that appeared online,” said a statement to The Associated Press from the band, whose hits include “Waterloo,” “The Winner Takes It All” and “Money, Money, Money.”

“As a result, ABBA and its representative has promptly requested the removal and deletion of such content. No request has been received; therefore, no permission or license has been granted.”

A spokesman for the Trump campaign said it had obtained a license. “The campaign had a license to play ABBA music through our agreement with BMI and ASCAP,” the spokesperson told the AP.

▶ Read more about the Trump and ABBA

Harris wants a Republican in her Cabinet, she tells CNN

Harris told CNN that she would name a Republican to her Cabinet if elected.

The vice president noted in the interview airing at 9 p.m. ET tonight that there are still 68 days until the election “so I’m not putting the cart before the horse.” She said she didn’t have a particular Republican in mind but thinks having a member of the GOP in her Cabinet is important because “I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion.”

She continued: “I think it’s important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican.”

Harris has pledged to be a president for all Americans.

Trump rails against Harris as he visits Michigan and heads to Wisconsin

Former President Donald Trump is campaigning in Michigan and Wisconsin as he ramps up his battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.

Trump is intensely focused on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 as he continues to adjust to the reality of his new race against Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump’s first stop was Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing, where he railed against the Biden administration over inflation in the most dramatic terms, accusing Harris and President Joe Biden of having presided over “an economic reign of terror” and “committing one financial atrocity after another.”

“Kamala has made middle-class life unaffordable and unlivable and I’m going to make America affordable again,” he vowed to supporters at Alro Steel.

New Trump book defends 2018 Putin meeting, taunts rivals and threatens to imprison Meta’s Zuckerberg

In a new book, former President Donald Trump calls his 2018 summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki “a GREAT meeting” and threatens to imprison Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg if the tech mogul does anything this year akin to his $400 million donation to local election offices in 2020.

The book, entitled “Save America,” is a collection of pictures, anecdotes and reminiscences from Trump’s presidential campaigns and term in office.

In it, Trump defended his widely criticized Helsinki meeting with Putin, in which Trump said he gave equal weight to the Russian president’s claims not to have interfered in the 2020 presidential election as to the conclusions of U.S. intelligence agencies. In regards to his meeting with Zuckerberg, Trump writes that “He would bring his very nice wife to dinners, be as nice as anyone could be, while always plotting to install shameful Lock Boxes in a true PLOT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT,” referring to the more than $400 million that Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan Zuckerberg, donated to election offices in 2020.

The book is scheduled to be released Sept. 3. It is one of a number of commercial ventures the former president has launched that include a special pair of sneakers, an edition of the Bible and digital trading cards. “Save America” will sell for $99 with a signed copy going for $499.

▶ Read more about Trump’s new book

Harris talks climate policy in first clip of CNN interview

The first clip of CNN’s interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, is up.

In it, Harris is pressed about once supporting the Green New Deal — a sweeping package of policies meant to drastically reduce the nation’s greenhouse emissions at an accelerated pace — and other liberal policy initiatives she supported while running in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary but now no longer does.

“My values have not changed,” Harris responded.

She added of the Green New Deal, “I have always believed — and I have worked on it — that the climate crisis is real, that it is an urgent matter.”

The vice president said that the U.S. had to set deadlines to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the Biden administration has done that. She added that her policies around the U.S.-Mexico border also have not changed, noting that she prosecuted human and drug smugglers as California attorney general.

This is the first sit-down interview Harris has done since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and endorsed her.

Military approves additional support for Harris and Trump campaigns

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters at a briefing Thursday that the military has approved a request from the Department of Homeland Security to provide additional support to both the Harris and Trump presidential campaigns.

The support will include both active duty and National Guard forces who will provide additional helicopter lift, explosives detection, chemical weapons detection and military working dogs among other assets to provide both campaigns increased security and support.

The support will continue for both campaigns through election day and for the next president and vice-president-elect through inauguration day, Singh said.

The path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win presidency runs through 7 states

With most states reliably red or blue, the path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency runs through seven states where the contest is expected to be narrowly decided.

Those are: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. All together, they are home to only 18.3% of the country’s population.

The Associated Press has been tracking the campaign appearances of the Democratic and Republican tickets since March.

Since then, Pennsylvania has been getting the most love from both campaigns, with a total of 21 visits, including one planned this coming weekend. Wisconsin and Michigan are close behind with 17 and 16, respectively.

Most states haven’t been visited at all, and a handful with clusters of wealth, such as California, get attention not for their voters but when the campaigns want to tap the wallets of the rich.

Vance greeted with cheers and boos at appearance before top firefighters union

JD Vance was greeted with some cheers and some boos during an appearance before a top firefighters union.

Vance appeared Thursday at the annual meeting of the International Association of Firefighters in Boston.

After receiving a mixed reaction to some of his comments, he remarked that it “sounds like we’ve got some fans and some haters — that’s OK.”

One of Vance’s remarks that elicited both cheers and jeers was that he and Trump “are the most pro-American worker ticket in history.”

The GOP vice presidential nominee’s appearance came a day after Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz addressed the same group. The organization’s political arm endorsed President Joe Biden’s candidacy in the 2020 campaign.

Vance got a larger reaction of cheers when he promised support for collective bargaining and more benefits for firefighters.

No audience, live mics or written notes, according to rules for upcoming debate between Trump and Harris

Next month’s debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump won’t have an audience, live microphones when candidates aren’t speaking, or written notes.

That’s according to rules that host network ABC News shared this week with both campaigns.

A copy of the rules was provided to the Associated Press on Thursday by a senior Trump campaign official on condition of anonymity ahead of the network’s announcement. The Harris campaign on Thursday insisted it was still discussing the muting of mics with ABC.

The parameters now in place for the Sept. 10 debate are essentially the same as they were for the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden, a disastrous performance for the incumbent Democrat that fueled his exit from the campaign.

Harris’ campaign had advocated for live microphones for the whole debate, saying in a statement that the practice would “fully allow for substantive exchanges between the candidates.”

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Associated Press reporter Jill Colvin in New York contributed.

Army says Arlington Cemetery employee ‘abruptly pushed aside’ during wreath-laying attended by Trump

The Army says an Arlington Cemetery official was “abruptly pushed aside” during an altercation with a member of Trump’s campaign staff that took place as Trump was attending a wreath-laying for service members killed in the Afghanistan war withdrawal.

In a statement Thursday, the Army said the employee was trying to make sure those participating in the wreath-laying ceremony were following the rules, and “acted with professionalism and avoided further disruption.”

The Trump campaign has been facing blowback since an NPR report said that two Trump campaign staff members had “verbally abused and pushed” aside a cemetery official who tried to stop them from filming and photographing in Section 60, the burial site for military personnel killed while fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Federal law prohibits campaign or election-related activities within Army national military cemeteries.

The Trump campaign has claimed the Republican presidential nominee’s team was allowed to have a photographer during the Monday event and has contested the allegation that a campaign staffer pushed a cemetery official.

Trump campaign adviser Lewandowski says Harris has been dodging the news media

Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski says Vice President Kamala Harris has been dodging the news media ahead of her interview Thursday night on CNN.

Lewandowski, who was recently brought back to the Trump campaign, said the former president has conducted more than three dozen interviews in recent weeks while Harris refused to grant an interview to a major news outlet.

He also complained that Trump will have to “beat two Democratic nominees” after Harris’ “coronation” by Democrats, following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race. Harris “can’t hide” from the Biden administration’s record on jobs and inflation, Lewandowski told reporters on a call Thursday morning.

Polling shows ramped-up enthusiasm among Democrats since Harris became the presidential nominee

Democrats’ enthusiasm about their vote in November has surged over the past few months, according to polling from Gallup. About 8 in 10 Democrats now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting, compared with 55% in March.

This gives them an enthusiasm edge they did not have earlier this year. Republicans’ enthusiasm has increased by much less over the same period. About two-thirds of Republicans now say they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting.

Trump visiting swing districts in Michigan and Wisconsin as battleground campaigning ramps up

Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign Thursday in Michigan and Wisconsin as the former president ramps up battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.

Trump’s intense focus on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 continues with stops in the middle of Michigan and western Wisconsin.

Trump’s day starts with an afternoon rally in Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing. Trump won Eaton County, where part of Lansing is located, in both 2016 and 2020, but by a smaller margin the second time.

Later, he’ll visit La Crosse, Wisconsin, for a town hall moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed him in Detroit. It will be Trump’s first visit to Wisconsin since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Harris, Walz will sit down for first major TV interview of their presidential campaign

Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will sit down Thursday for their first major television interview of their presidential campaign as the duo travels in southeast Georgia on a bus tour.

The interview with CNN’s Dana Bash will give Harris a chance to quell criticism that she has eschewed uncontrolled environments, while also giving her a fresh platform to define her campaign and test her political mettle ahead of an upcoming debate with former President Donald Trump set for Sept. 10. But it also carries risk as her team tries to build on momentum from the ticket shakeup following Joe Biden’s exit and last week’s Democratic National Convention.

The CNN interview is set to air at 9 p.m. EDT. It was scheduled to be taped at 1:45 p.m. EDT at Kim’s Cafe, a Black-owned restaurant in Savannah, Georgia. The interview comes during Harris’ two-day bus tour through southeast Georgia that culminates with an evening rally in the coastal city.

Joint interviews during an election year are a fixture in politics; Biden and Harris, Trump and Mike Pence, Barack Obama and Biden — all did them at a similar point in the race.