Harris campaign cancels ad buy in NC in final week before election
In a big development in a key swing state, the advertisement tracking company AdImpact is reporting that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign canceled $2.7 million in ad buys in North Carolina. The surprising move comes in the final week of the presidential campaign.
North Carolina is considered by most political experts to be one of seven battleground states, with 16 electoral votes. Former President Donald Trump won the state in 2020 and 2016. However, Kamala Harris has made multiple campaign appearances in the state in hopes of flipping it.
Trump is slated to make a campaign stop in North Carolina on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
The Carolina Journal reports the race for North Carolina is still in a dead heat with the candidates tied at 47% each. However, the Journal also says Trump leads Harris from Charlotte to western North Carolina by 12 points and leads Harris by 9 points in the coastal area.
The same poll shows Harris is ahead in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area by 15 points. Harris is slated to make a campaign appearance in Raleigh on Wednesday.
Harris campaign’s gun-free Fortnite map sees less than 400 players
In a move to engage younger voters, Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign released its custom map, “Freedom Town, USA,” on the popular game “Fortnite” this week. Unlike most Fortnite maps, Freedom Town has no guns—a design decision that has garnered both praise and criticism on social media.
Harris’ campaign created Freedom Town to connect with the 16- to 24-year-old demographic that comprises much of Fortnite’s 400 million registered players. The map saw a peak of under 400 users in its first 24 hours. That’s far fewer than the 323,000 users who played more popular maps like “Ranked Reload.”
In traditional Fortnite matches, players use various weapons to eliminate each other until only one remains. However, Freedom Town shifts the focus to collecting supplies, building structures and finding campaign posters and activities tied to the Harris-Walz campaign’s messaging.
Reactions to the map have been mixed. Some users on social media expressed disappointment over the absence of weapons, while others offered positive feedback. Gene Park, a gaming critic for The Washington Post, said the map was “more thoughtfully designed than you’d expect.”
This year, political campaigns have placed increased emphasis on reaching the “gamer vote.” Former President Donald Trump recently appeared on a livestream with influencer Adin Ross, attracting over half a million viewers.
While it remains unclear how effective Freedom Town will be in reaching voters, Fortnite continues to be a powerful platform for messaging, with hundreds of millions of active players.
Presidential candidates’ path to 270 electoral votes runs through swing states
In one week, the presidential election results will come rolling in, and both the Trump and Harris campaigns will begin doing the math. They’ll determine if their nominee has won enough states to get 270 electoral college votes and become the next president-elect.
Most political experts agree the election will come down to the outcome in seven battleground states: Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada. There are a total of 93 electoral votes up for grabs in those states.
Pundits believe former President Donald Trump needs to garner 51 of those electoral votes to win. His largest lead in the polls is in Georgia and Arizona which together have 27 electoral votes.
If he nabs those two, he would need to find 24 more to win. If Trump wins Nevada and Pennsylvania, that gives him 25. He could also lock down two of North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin to win.
For Vice President Kamala Harris to win, many experts believe she needs to win 44 of the available 93 electoral votes in the battleground states. If Harris were to win the Democrat’s so-called blue wall of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, that’s exactly 44 and she likely makes it to 270.
Harris also could lose either Michigan or Wisconsin and make up the difference by winning in North Carolina.
Either way, the one common denominator of importance for both candidates appears to be Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes.
Where do former presidents stand on candidates in the 2024 election?
President Joe Biden is slated to vote in his home state of Delaware on Monday, Oct. 28. He dropped out of the race for president in the summer of 2024 and announced his support for his Vice President Kamala Harris. Come late January, he will be the former president. The other former presidents recently announced their decisions on who to endorse, or not endorse, during the 2024 election.
There are five living former presidents, four of which are not currently candidates. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, are both two-term Democrats and very popular within the Democratic Party. They are strongly supporting Kamala Harris, even going out on the campaign trail with her.
Fellow Democrat and former President Jimmy Carter, who recently turned 100-years-old, is in hospice care in his native Georgia. He recently voted by mail and told family members he was trying to live long enough to vote for Harris.
As for Republican former President George W. Bush, his office has said the former president does not plan to endorse a candidate for president in this cycle. Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump blasted Bush in various debates for starting the war in Iraq. Bush supposedly did not vote for either major party candidate in 2016 when Trump was opposed by Democrat Hillary Clinton.
George W. Bush revealed that he wrote-in former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s name in the 2020 election when Trump and Biden ran against each other.
CNN alleges Fox edited Trump’s controversial barbershop remarks
CNN accused Fox News of selectively editing a recent segment featuring former President Donald Trump’s visit to a Bronx barbershop, where he interacted with patrons and answered questions. The network aired a condensed 15-minute version that omitted several of Trump’s controversial remarks, according to CNN.
CNN claims several exaggerated statements about immigration in Ohio, crime in Colorado and praise for Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The network also claimed the edits were aimed at presenting Trump in a more favorable light.
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Fox News stated that all barbershop interviews are pre-taped and edited for time and clarity. Officials noted the Bronx segment ran nearly an hour in its original form. The network maintains that segments were edited to streamline Trump’s responses.
However, CNN contends that the edits altered the perception of Trump’s responses. The network cited a now-deleted Instagram video from an audience member that showed Trump taking longer, unedited pauses and answering repeated questions more indirectly.
CNN alleges that Fox condensed Trump’s answers to offer more straightforward sound bites that made him appear direct and on-topic. In one case, Fox cut Trump’s lengthy response about eliminating federal taxes.
The original video showed Trump discussing unrelated topics before finally answering the question after being prompted multiple times. The video has since been deleted by the audience member who posted it on Instagram.
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This controversy mirrors Trump’s recent accusation that CBS similarly edited an interview with Vice President Kamala Harris on “60 Minutes“. Trump claimed CBS cut certain responses to enhance Harris’ image. Trump demanded that CBS release the unedited footage, accusing the network of bias.
Critics, however, argue that the CBS edits were intended for promotional snippets. They said Fox’s approach removed portions from the primary segment, potentially misrepresenting Trump’s full dialogue with barbershop patrons.
Media analysts are now raising questions about how network editing choices might impact public perception of political figures. Fox’s cuts, they argue, could create a skewed narrative of Trump’s responses, while the incident underscores broader concerns over transparency in network television. Fox has yet to release the full unedited footage from Trump’s barbershop visit to clarify CNN’s claims.
Harris, Trump campaigns and allies spent half-a-billion dollars in just over 2 weeks
Turn on the television for any length of time and the political ads are constant, especially in the race for president. In the days leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5, expect the onslaught to continue as the candidates and the surrogates spend a whopping amount of money.
According to financial disclosures filed this week, The Trump and Harris campaigns spent more than half-a-billion dollars in the first half of October 2024. The campaigns themselves doled $265 million, while their super PACs kicked in another $260 million.
During that same time period in October, The New York Times found that the Harris campaign raised about $183 million. The Trump campaign pulled in $92 million. Most of the money is being spent on advertising as quickly as it is coming in.
Their surrogates are also spending lots of money on the race. The Democrats’ largest super PAC, Future Forward, spent $82 million on ad buys during the week of Oct. 21 alone. The Harris campaign is getting a financial boost from Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. He has contributed $38 million.
Donald Trump meanwhile is getting financial help from the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. He spent $57 million on Republicans in the first half of October and contributed $119 million overall.
Musk is also contributing money to Senate Republicans in an effort to flip the Senate to the GOP in the election.
Foreign countries influencing 2024 election, Microsoft says
With less than two weeks until the 2024 U.S. presidential election, foreign adversaries are increasing their efforts to disrupt the democratic process, Microsoft warns. Russia, Iran and China are targeting key political campaigns and voters using cyber tactics and disinformation, according to a report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center.
Russia has concentrated its influence operations on the Harris-Walz campaign, according to Microsoft. Russian operatives have created AI-generated deepfake videos aimed at discrediting Vice President Kamala Harris.
One video falsely depicts her insulting former President Donald Trump, while another accuses her of illegal activities in Zambia.
Disinformation targeting Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Walz has also gained traction. One video has received more than 5 million views on social media.
Iranian hackers, tracked by Microsoft as “Cotton Sandstorm,” have been probing U.S. election-related websites and media outlets.
Despite ongoing tensions in the Middle East, Iranian operatives are preparing for cyber-influence operations targeting U.S. audiences. This is similar to their 2020 operation posing as the right-wing group Proud Boys. This time, Iran is encouraging voters to boycott the election, claiming U.S. support for Israel undermines candidates.
China, meanwhile, is focusing its disinformation efforts on down-ballot Republican candidates who advocate for anti-China policies. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Marco Rubio, along with Rep. Barry Moore, have been targeted with accusations of corruption and amplified antisemitic messaging. Though these efforts have not seen high engagement, they represent China’s sustained attempts to influence U.S. political discourse.
Microsoft reports that all three countries are using AI to spread disinformation rapidly. As Election Day approaches, these foreign interference operations are expected to increase, undermine voter confidence and cast doubt on the integrity of the results. Early detection and fact-checking are critical to counter these efforts, Microsoft says.
Yelp suspends reviews for PA McDonald’s after Trump campaign visit
Yelp has temporarily disabled reviews for a McDonald’s in Feasterville, Pennsylvania, following a campaign stop by former President Donald Trump. The restaurant’s Yelp page was flooded with politicized reviews, leading the platform to investigate whether the comments reflected actual customer experiences.
The event was closed to the public, and only customers screened by the Secret Service were served. Yelp users quickly posted a flurry of reviews, some poking fun at Trump.
One commenter quipped, “The fries were too salty, as if someone who lost a major election had been crying over them for an hour,” while another joked about “bronzer on my fries.”
Getty Images via Washington Post
Yelp issued a statement saying, “This business recently received increased public attention, which often means people come to this page to post their views on the news… we’ve temporarily disabled the posting of content to this page.”
The platform explained that it was working to determine whether the reviews reflected real consumer experiences.
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Some five-star reviews also appeared, with one user calling it the “best McDonald’s I’ve ever been to in 47 years,” praising Trump’s involvement as an “extremely nice older employee.”
A Trump campaign spokesperson responded to the controversy by blaming Vice President Kamala Harris and her supporters, accusing them of attempting to “terrorize a franchisee owner of a great American establishment.”
This is not the first time Trump has been targeted in Yelp review bombing campaigns. In 2018, his Washington hotel saw hundreds of one-star reviews after he made controversial remarks about immigration.
