In a debate that evoked a calmer era in American politics, Tim Walz and JD Vance went after each other’s running mates Tuesday and sought to shore up their campaigns’ vulnerabilities at a time of renewed fears of a regional war in the Middle East and sadness over devastation from Hurricane Helene.
In a debate that evoked a calmer era in American politics, Tim Walz and JD Vance went after each other’s running mates Tuesday and sought to shore up their campaigns’ vulnerabilities at a time of renewed fears of a regional war in the Middle East and sadness over devastation from Hurricane Helene.
Meanwhile, those new trials — along with a dockworkers strike that threatens the U.S. economy — are looming over the final weeks of the presidential campaign and could help shape the public mood as voters decide between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
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Here’s the latest:
Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said Wednesday that “I need to be more specific on that” and acknowledged he misspoke during a debate with his Republican rival a day earlier when he said he had “become friends with school shooters.”
“I’m super passionate about this,” the former schoolteacher told reporters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He clarified that he had gotten to know the parents of victims in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting while he was in Congress, as well as the activist and school-shooting survivor David Hogg, calling him a “good friend of mine.”
Said Walz, “I need to be more specific on that, but I am passionate about this.”
Walz also acknowledge again that he “got his dates wrong” when he claimed he was in China during the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.
Security for America’s election systems has become so robust that Russia, Iran or any other foreign adversary won’t be able to alter the outcome of this year’s presidential race, the head of the nation’s cybersecurity agency said Wednesday.
Jen Easterly told The Associated Press in an interview that voting, ballot-counting and other election infrastructure is more secure today than it’s ever been.
“Malicious actors, even if they tried, could not have an impact at scale such that there would be a material effect on the outcome of the election,” said Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Federal agencies have warned of growing attempts by Russia and Iran in particular to influence voters before the Nov. 5 election and election conspiracy theories have left millions of Americans doubting the validity of election results.
