Vance ‘spin room’ surrogates include Trump Jr., Howard Lutnick
Son of Former US President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr. speaks during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 16, 2024.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr, Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick and House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., will be in the “spin room” after the debate to praise Vance’s performance, a spokesperson for Vance tells NBC News.
Lutnick, one of the Republican ticket’s strongest allies on Wall Street, has also been tapped to help lead Trump’s presidential transition team. Earlier this month, Vance headlined a $10,000-a-plate-minimum breakfast fundraiser in New York City co-hosted by Lutnick, CNBC reported.
Stefanik was one of the frontrunners to be Trump’s vice-presidential pick before the former president picked Vance in July.
Vance’s other post-debate surrogates will be senior Trump Campaign spokesman Jason Miller, GOP Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Katie Britt of Alabama, and Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, NBC reports.
— Ece Yildirim
Why Springfield, Ohio, is dogging Vance
A mural is displayed in an alley downtown on September 16, 2024 in Springfield, Ohio.
Luke Sharrett | Getty Images
Vance and Walz may be debating in Manhattan, but their focus is likely to shift some 600 miles west to Springfield, Ohio, which became the epicenter of a raging political battle after the Republican ticket stoked lies about the city’s influx of Haitian immigrants.
In September, Vance repeatedly amplified unsubstantiated rumors about Haitians stealing and eating Springfield residents’ pets. He later defended spreading the false claims, at one point telling CNN that he was willing to “create stories” in order to get his message across.
Trump also spread the conspiracies online — and then, in a much-mocked moment from his debate with Harris, falsely claimed, “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs … they’re eating the cats … they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.”
Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, has repeatedly denounced the claims being spread by Trump and Vance.
— Kevin Breuninger
Vance dines with rich GOP donors on eve of debate
Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance reacts while speaking to the media on the day of the debate between Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 10, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
Vance huddled with Republican megadonors at a private dinner in New York on Monday, the eve of his debate with Walz, an invitee to the event tells CNBC.
The senator dined with donors from the America Opportunity Alliance, said the invitee, who was granted anonymity in order to speak about the private event.
The group acts as a network for wealthy Republican financiers and was founded by the likes of longtime investors Paul Singer and Ken Griffin.
Griffin, the billionaire CEO of Citadel Securities, has backed conservative Republican candidates in the 2024 cycle, but he has not publicly endorsed Trump.
The timing of Vance’s meeting is crucial for the GOP ticket, which has struggled to keep up with a fundraising surge for Harris since she entered the race in July.
She outraised Trump in August. The vice president’s campaign brought in more than $189 million over that time period, while Trump raised about $44 million.
— Brian Schwartz
In a norm-busting election, the unthinkable: a VP debate that actually matters
This combination of images shows Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at left in Erie, Pa., Aug. 28, 2024, and Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaking at the DNC in Chicago, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago.
AP
If past is prologue, the Walz-Vance face-off may as well not even happen — at least according to some analysts, who say it’s hard to tell whether vice presidential debates impact the overall race.
But the 2024 cycle has already made confetti of political norms, and there are some genuinely good reasons to think Tuesday’s debate might actually matter.
For one, the showdown might be the final time that the two presidential tickets share a stage before Election Day. Trump and Harris debated just once, and the GOP nominee has repeatedly shut down the possibility of squaring off again.
The nominees have also been less visible: Harris has done few interviews since taking the reins in July, and Trump has done far fewer rallies than in his prior presidential runs.
Trump and Harris, meanwhile, are running neck and neck in most of the swing states that will decide the election, polls show. If the running mates can move the needle at all, they might upend the race.
— Kevin Breuninger
Vance has more to gain from this debate than Walz does, analysts say
US Senator and Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance arrives to speak about the economy at Majestic Friesians Horse Farms in Big Rapids, Michigan, on August 27, 2024.
Jeff Kowalsky | AFP | Getty Images
Vance is playing for more at tonight’s debate due to his already low approval ratings, PIMCO analysts say in a new report.
Typically, the analysts note, VP debates tend to have a negligible effect on presidential races. But given that this election is set to be won “by a matter of inches, not feet” the running mates’ performances tonight may carry heavier weight than usual.
So far, Vance’s comments about “childless cat ladies” and debunked claims about immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio have put the Trump campaign on several bouts of damage control.
Those blunders and his low approval ratings give Vance “more upside – and potentially more downside as well” in the face-off against Walz.
— Rebecca Picciotto
Trump has slight edge to win, House and Senate likely to flip: Stifel Financial analyst
Republican presidential nominee former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 29, 2024.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Trump is slightly favored to win the election, even though Harris is ahead in the polls, according to Stifel Financial‘s chief Washington policy strategist.
“Based on election fundamentals and comparisons of past election to the current one, we think Trump is in a better position to win the Electoral College vote than some people realize,” the expert, Brian Gardner, writes in a new analyst note.
He points to voters’ lingering doubts about the economy and Trump’s enduring, albeit shrinking, advantage on the issue. And while Harris currently holds a roughly 2-point lead in the polls, Gardner says that Trump is in a stronger position now than he was in the 2016 election, when he beat Hillary Clinton.
Gardner cites the RealClearPolitics polling average, which in recent election cycles has faced scrutiny over the data it chooses to aggregate.
The analyst also favors Republicans to flip the Senate — which Democrats currently lead 51-49 — but predicts the GOP is more likely to lose its majority in the House.
— Kevin Breuninger
Vance takes a crack at MSNBC anchor for correcting hyperbolic egg claim
Eggs are seen at Lincoln Market on June 12, 2023 in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Vance fired back at MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle this week for fact-checking his claim that his children “eat about 14 eggs every single morning.”
Vance made the statement on Sept. 21 during a campaign stop at Pennsylvania supermarket, attempting to make a point about high grocery costs under the Biden-Harris administration.
Over a week later, Ruhle calculated that two children eating 14 eggs per day would result in them eating 98 eggs per week, which she pointed out in an X post. Vance has three children, ages, six, four and two.
He responded to Ruhle by implying that the egg statement was mere hyperbole, and that the MSNBC anchor was taking the claim too literally.
“One time I said I was so tired I could sleep for days,” Vance wrote in his Monday post. “Stephanie Ruhle: Vance, in fact, only slept for 8 hours.”
— Rebecca Picciotto
Netflix cancellations surged after chairman endorsed Harris in July: Report
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings speaks during an interview on day two of the Netflix See What’s Next: Asia event at the Marina Bay Sands on November 9, 2018 in Singapore.
Ore Huiying | Getty Images
Netflix was hit with a surge in cancellations in the five days after its co-founder and chairman, Reed Hastings, endorsed Harris for president in an X post in July, Bloomberg has reported. At the time, Hastings also announced in an interview that he donated $7 million to a pro-Harris PAC,
The rate of cancellations nearly tripled in the U.S. in the days following the endorsement, according to data from market research firm Antenna. July 26, four days after the endorsement, was the single worst day for Netflix cancellations this year.
— Ece Yildirim
Here’s what to know about Walz’s track record in Minnesota
U.S. Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks on Day 3 of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., August 21, 2024.
Mike Segar | Reuters
Walz has a policy record in Minnesota that some progressives might only dream of.
With a Democratic governing trifecta and a nearly $18 billion budget surplus, Walz has been able to strengthen union protections, invest over $1 billion in housing resources, pass universal paid family and medical leave, make school lunch free for all students, hike corporate taxes and more.
Walz’s policy achievements serve as a proving ground for some of the Harris campaign’s economic platform. But his liberal spending record and at-times tense relationship with corporations could also serve as a line of attack for Vance in tonight’s debate.
Read more CNBC coverage of Walz’s corporate battles and his overall Minnesota track record.
— Rebecca Picciotto
Where are the candidates ahead of the debate?
Republican Presidential candidate, former U.S. president, Donald Trump, left, poses for photos with Republican Vice Presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, (R-OH), before making remarks to a crowd during an event on August 21, 2024 in Asheboro, North Carolina at the North Carolina Aviation Museum and Hall of Fame.
Melissa Sue Gerrits | Getty Images
Walz will begin the day in Harbor Springs, Michigan where he and his team have been since Saturday, preparing for the debate. He will make his way to New York City in the morning.
Like Harris, Walz did his debate prep in a swing state, seizing the opportunity to log a few extra days in a battleground and potentially earn some goodwill among voters there.
Vance flew from Ohio to New York City Monday afternoon, ahead of tonight’s debate.
While Vice President Harris has no scheduled campaign appearances for the day, Trump has two in Wisconsin. The former president will deliver remarks at 2:30 pm ET at a manufacturer in Waunakee, followed by remarks at 6 pm ET at Discovery World Science & Technology Museum in Milwaukee.
— Ece Yildirim
Vance-Walz debate set in NYC, an epicenter of the affordability crisis
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 31: Skyscrapers loom over downtown Manhattan on March 31, 2022 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Vance and Walz will face off tonight in New York City, a fitting backdrop for a sparring match that could focus on the economy and high costs of living, which consistently rank as voters top issues.
New York City is plagued by an ongoing affordability crisis.
As of 2022, the median home price in NYC was $724,000, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The median household income that year was $72,000. As a result, nearly 70% of the population rents their homes.
The office market has also suffered in the wake of the pandemic as remote work policies hollowed out office buildings, leaving some sectors within commercial real estate crumbling.
Still, home to Wall Street and a burgeoning tech sector, NYC’s five boroughs comprise the largest economy in the state and one of the largest in the world.
— Rebecca Picciotto
The New York Times: ‘Harris is the only patriotic choice for president’
The New York Times building in New York on Oct. 26, 2022.
Beata Zawrzel | Nurphoto | Getty Images
The New York Times Editorial Board has endorsed Harris for president in an opinion piece, calling her “the only patriotic choice for president.”
“It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump,” the editorial board wrote, arguing that the former president is “morally” and “temperamentally unfit” for the role.
The piece also criticized Trump’s criminal charges and older age compared to Harris, as well as “his fundamental lack of interest in policy and his increasingly bizarre cast of associates.”
“A second Trump term would be much more damaging and divisive than the first,” the editorial board wrote.
— Ece Yildirim