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1 The Full-Court Press Is On In The Presidential Race
With now six days until Election Day, both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are increasing their campaign activity. At their rallies, both candidates continued to push the same issues they’ve been touting for weeks. Harris addressed a crowd of what her campaign estimated to be around 75,000 people in Washington yesterday, with attendees at the talks held on the Ellipse handed small American flags as they walked past large red, white, and blue banners with “Freedom” and “USA” on them. A senior Harris campaign official said the moves were part of their attempt to “reclaim patriotism,” telling NBC News “Why should Republicans be the party of patriotism?” Trump spoke at a rally at the PPL Center arena in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where some Puerto Rican voters gathered to protest Trump’s appearance after remarks made about the territory during Trump’s Madison Square Garden rally over the weekend by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe. When asked during an interview with WISN-TV in Milwaukee why she hasn’t accomplished the things she’s proposing to do in her possible administration, Harris replied “Well, I’m not president.” The Trump campaign is headed back to Joe Rogan’s studio. Vice-presidential candidate JD Vance is scheduled to tape his own interview with Rogan today in Austin. At a Get Out and Vote rally in Savannah, Georgia yesterday, vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz said “Donald Trump’s a loser in everything that he’s done,” then added, “He loses jobs, he loses businesses, he loses in court, and no matter what JD Vance says, he lost the 2020 election.”
2 President Biden Announces $3-Billion Investment To Upgrade American Ports
President Joe Biden appeared at the Port of Baltimore yesterday to bring news about the future of American ports. The Port of Baltimore was closed for weeks after a ship ran into a support pylon on the Key Bridge, collapsing part of the bridge into the water. During his remarks, Biden announced a $3-billion investment from his Inflation Reduction Act to upgrade 55 ports in 27 states and territories around the US, including $147-million in grants for the Port of Baltimore to be used to decarbonize its cargo handling operations. The grants are part of a “clean ports” program that’s hoped to improve air quality at ports by installing “clean, zero-emission freight and ferry technologies along with associated infrastructure,” with the goal of eliminating over 3-million metric tons of carbon pollution over 10 years. The president made it clear that the move won’t affect workers, but instead create roughly 2,000 new jobs.
3 Over 50-Million Early Ballots Have Already Been Cast
Much attention has been given to early in-person and mail-in voting during the last few weeks. As of yesterday, over 50-million ballots had already been cast in next week’s election. While some states have seen an increase in early voting, statistics put together by Professor Michael McDonald of the University of Florida four years ago show there were over 101-million early ballots cast in 2020. Early voting end dates vary by state this week. Of the early ballots already cast this year, NBC News reports that 42-percent were cast by registered Democrats, and 40-percent were cast by registered Republicans.