Trump to hold New York rally as Teamsters won’t give any 2024 endorsement: Latest

Presidential candidates typically focus much of their travel on battleground states, but Donald Trump on Wednesday is taking his message to a somewhat unlikely place: suburban New York.

The Republican presidential nominee and former president is heading to Uniondale, on Long Island, an area that could be key to his party maintaining control of the House. His party is trying to protect 18 Republicans in Democratic-heavy congressional districts that Joe Biden carried in 2020, particularly in coastal New York and California, and going on offense to challenge Democrats elsewhere.

Long Island in particular features one of the most closely watched races, between first-term Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito and Democrat Laura Gillen. D’Esposito is a former New York Police detective who won in 2022 in a district that Biden won by about 15 percentage points in 2020.

Trump posted Tuesday on his Truth Social platform that the GOP has “a real chance of winning” New York “for the first time in many decades.” In that same post, Trump also pledged that he would “get SALT back,” suggesting he would eliminate a cap on state and local tax deductions that were part of tax cut legislation he signed into law in 2017.

The so-called SALT cap has led to bigger tax bills for many residents of New York, New Jersey, California and other high-cost, high-tax states, and is an important campaign issue in those states, particularly among those New York Republicans serving in districts Biden won.

A state law that went into effect in 2004 requires Arizona voters to provide proof of citizenship to register to vote in state and local elections.

The Harris-Walz campaign released the following statement from Vice President Kamala Harris following the Federal Reserve’s decision to slash interest rates by 0.5% — the first cut in four years.

“While this announcement is welcome news for Americans who have borne the brunt of high prices, my focus is on the work ahead to keep bringing prices down. I know prices are still too high for many middle class and working families, and my top priority as President will be to lower the costs of everyday needs like health care, housing, and groceries. That is why I am proposing plans to cut taxes for more than 100 million working and middle-class Americans, pass the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on food and groceries, and make housing more affordable by building 3 million new homes and giving more Americans down payment assistance. But we also need to go further to create an opportunity economy where, with hard work and ambition, everyone has a chance to compete and a chance to succeed – from buying a home to starting a business and building wealth.

“This is the opposite of what Donald Trump would do as President. While proposing more tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, his plan would increase costs on families by nearly $4,000 a year by slapping a Trump Tax on goods families rely on, like gas, food and clothing. He wants to repeal the law I cast the tie-breaking vote to pass that caps the costs of prescription drugs for seniors, including insulin at $35. He would end the Affordable Care Act and erase the progress we have made to lower premiums for millions of Americans by hundreds of dollars a year. Sixteen Nobel Prize winning economists say his plan would increase inflation, and a Moody’s report found it would cause a recession by the middle of next year.

“This election is about whether we are going to finally build an opportunity economy that gives every American a shot not just to get by, but to get ahead. As President, that will be my priority every day.”

The Federal Reserve has broken a four-year run and cut its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to 4.75-5.0 percent.

This significant move signals that the US central bank believes it is winning the war on inflation and will now focus on preventing the job market from weakening.

One immediate effect should be lower borrowing costs for both consumers and businesses in the run-up to November’s presidential election.

“The more pressing question is why has the media chosen to scrutinize my celebration of the human form in a fashion photo shoot?”

Kerstin Emhoff, the first wife of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, has jumped to the defense of Vice President Kamala Harris following a low-blow attack from Sarah Huckabee Sanders, governor of Arkansas, who has joined the ranks of in the Republican Party of those who feel the need to disparage women who have not had biological children of their own.

Emhoff is the mother of Cole and Ella Emhoff and Harris has been their stepmother or “Mamala” since 2014.

On Tuesday, Democrats held a vote to enshrine protections for IVF and mandate insurance coverage for the treatment. Unsurprisingly, Republicans blocked the legislation, with only Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joining Democrats to vote for the bill.