Election updates: Harris sits for tense interview; Trump doubles down on false claims about migrants

Editor's note: This page reflects the news from the campaign trail for the2024 election from Wednesday, Oct. 16. For the latest news on the presidential election, read USA TODAY's live election updates for Thursday, Oct. 17.

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris hit the airwaves on Wednesday.

As they make their final pitches to voters in the last stretch of the 2024 election, Harris sat for an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier, which at times turned tense. Trump taped a town hall with the network centered around female voters on Tuesday night, and the event aired Wednesday morning

The Republican and Democratic nominees have less than three weeks to convince voters from coast to coast that they should be the next president, tackling issues ranging from inflation and the economy to the southern border and abortion access.

Catch up with the USA TODAY Network's live coverage.

Harris interview with Fox News turns tense

Kamala Harris' interview with Fox News – her first formal sit down with the outlet – turned tense at times as anchor Bret Baier asked the vice president about the top issues facing the nation, with a particular focus on immigration and the southern border.

Harris was asked to defend the administration's early decision to reverse some of Republican rival Donald Trump's restrictive policies, and to respond to a mother who testified in Congress about the loss of her daughter at the hands of an illegal immigrant.

"I'm so sorry for her loss, but let's talk about what is happening right now," Harris said. She said Trump told Republicans to reject a bipartisan immigration bill because "he preferred to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem."

Harris was also pressed to defend President Joe Biden's mental fitness, her years as vice president and previous support of gender-affirming surgery for transgender incarcerated people. Harris and Baier frequently talked over each other, and Harris grew visibly frustrated.

– Marina Pitofsky, Reuters

Trump doubles down on false claim about Haitian immigrants

Donald Trump on Wednesday doubled down on false claims that Haitian migrants are eating pets in a pitch to undecided Latino voters during a town hall with Univision, entitled "Latinos Ask... Donald Trump Responds."

One attendee, Jose Saralegui, a registered Republican from Rio Rico, Arizona, asked Trump if he really believes that Haitian migrants are eating the pets of the citizens of Springfield, Ohio – a debunked online rumor that Trump and his running mate JD Vance have repeated several times.

“This was just reported,” Trump said during the town hall. “I was just saying what was reported, that's been reported – and eating other things too, that they're not supposed to be.”

Springfield officials have disputed the rumors, which caused turmoil among Haitian migrants, who said they felt unsafe in the community. It also spurred a number of bomb threats that forced the evacuation of public buildings and the deployment of state police to every school in Springfield.

Trump said he was going to go to Springfield, Ohio and give a “full report” on the situation.

– Rebecca Morin

'Know where that language harkens back to'

Kamala Harris laced into Donald Trump on Wednesday at the launch point of a famous skirmish in the American Revolution for referring to Democrats as the “enemy from within.”

“Know where that language harkens back to,” she said. “He considers any American who doesn’t support him, or bend to his will to be an enemy to our country, and further, he says that as commander in chief he would use our military to go after them. Honestly, let that sink in. Use of the American military? To go after American citizens?”

The former president has faced questions after a Sunday interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo, in which he said the more significant threat to the country was not foreign adversaries, but "people from within." During the interview, he added that unrest after the election next month “should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military, because they can’t let that happen.”

Harris alleged Trump would target journalists, election workers and judges. “It is clear that Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged,” she said. “And he is seeking unchecked power.”

Joined by more than 100 Republicans who have endorsed her campaign and against the backdrop of Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania., which is named for the surprise attack that George Washington led over the Delaware River in 1776, Harris said Americans’ freedoms are once again at stake.

“Now the baton is in our hands,” Harris said.

– Francesca Chambers

Harris' campaign rebuts plagiarism claims

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ campaign refuted allegations from a conservative activist that she plagiarized portions of a 2009 book she co-authored, describing the claims as a partisan attempt by right-wing operatives to influence the election.

Conservative commentator and activist Christopher Rufo surfaced the allegations earlier this week in a Substack post claiming that there were at least five “serious” pieces of copied material in Harris' book, "Smart on Crime: A Career Prosecutor's Plan to Make us Safer." Rufo’s post pulled from a larger investigation completed by Austrian “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber.

“Some of the passages [Weber] highlighted appear to contain minor transgressions — reproducing small sections of text; insufficient paraphrasing — but others seem to reflect more serious infractions,” Rufo wrote in his post about the vice president's book.

Harris’ campaign described the allegations as part of a last-ditch effort by Republicans to stunt Harris’ momentum three weeks before Election Day.

– Karissa Waddick

‘Quite bizarre’: Harris slams Trump for calling himself the ‘father of IVF’

Kamala Harris pushed back at Donald Trump declaring himself “the father of IVF,” expressing bewilderment at a title the former president used Tuesday during a Fox News town hall of women voters.

“I found it to be quite bizarre,” Harris told reporters in Detroit Wednesday before boarding Air Force Two. “If what he meant is taking responsibility, well, then yeah, he should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state.”

It was unclear what Trump meant by the title. The first child born through in vitro fertilization treatment was in 1978 in Britain.

“I’m the father of IVF,” Trump said during the town hall, which was televised on Wednesday. “We really are the party for IVF,” the Republican nominee added. “We want fertilization, and it’s all the way. And the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we’re out there on IVF even more than them. So, we’re totally in favor of it.”

Access to IFV has been a central campaign issue for Democrats after the Alabama Supreme Court in February ruled frozen embryos created during the treatment are legally protected children. The ruling was based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade’s constitutional right to an abortion. The Republican-controlled Alabama legislature later passed legislation to shield IVF providers from criminal liability.

The vice president added: “Let's not be distracted by his choice of words. The reality is, his actions have been very harmful to women and families in America on this issue.”

– Joey Garrison 

What are Trump's odds of winning the election? 

Offshore bettors are still helping to drive up the odds that Trump will win back the White House because of his chances in battleground states like Pennsylvania.

As of Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET, Trump's probability of winning hit 60% on Polymarket, a crypto trading platform, for the first time since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race. Betfair Exchange, the biggest U.K. peer-to-peer betting platform, predicted on its temperature gauge Wednesday morning that Trump would likely win. Presidential election betting can't be done legally in the U.S.

National polling aggregated by Real Clear Politics still shows a much less emphatic picture: Harris has led by nearly 2 percentage points since Harris and Trump debated on Sept. 10, but Harris has narrowly trailed in battleground-state polling throughout October.

- Jim Sergent

Jimmy Carter gets birthday wish: casting a ballot 

Among a record-breaking quarter of a million voters who turned out for Georgia’s first day of early voting yesterday was former President Jimmy Carter.

The 100-year-old Democrat said previously he was holding on with the hope of being able to vote for Harris in 2024.

Carter, diagnosed in 2015 with a cancer that spread to his brain, has been in hospice care since February 2023. Already the longest living former president, he hit a milestone 100th birthday on Oct. 1.

– Savannah Kuchar and Marina Pitofsky 

Children separated under Trump warn of a second administration

Several children who were separated while immigrating to the United States during Donald Trump’s administration warned they are fearful more families will be separated if the former president gets elected again.

One of the children, Billy, whose last name was not shared due to privacy concerns, said he came to the United States with his father at the age of nine in 2018. He said that he was separated from his father and held in “la hielera,” or freezer, for three days. After that, he was flown to New York to stay with a foster family and didn’t see his father for 40 days. The two were finally reunited in Arizona.

Billy, now 16 and from Guatemala originally, said the experience is still traumatic and he fears another Trump presidency.

“I don't want this to happen to any more kids,” he said.

Bill was one of a handful of children who spoke at a press conference put on by Kamala Harris’ campaign ahead of Trump’s town hall with Univision. During the press conference, Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, also defended Harris’ immigration policies and urged Latino voters to cast a ballot for Democrats.

– Rebecca Morin

Biden: Trump's music-and-dance-a-thon 'unhinged'

President Joe Biden is getting into the act about Trump's bizarre music-and-dance-a-thon after a Monday night town hall, saying his Republican foe has "snapped."

"He's become unhinged," Biden said during a Harris event Tuesday. "Look at his rallies ... Last night, his rally stopped taking questions because someone got hurt. And guess what? He stood on the stage for 30 minutes and danced ... I'm serious! ... What's wrong with this guy?"

Trump, speaking on Truth Social, said "we started playing music" and "just kept it going" when the event was interrupted by a pair of medical emergencies. "So different, but it ended up being a GREAT EVENING!" he said.

- David Jackson

Trump to take part in Univision town hall to appeal to Latino voters

Donald Trump will participate in a town hall with Univision on Wednesday, a move that comes as he’s seeing a rise in support among Latino men.

The Univision town hall, entitled "Latinos Ask... Donald Trump Responds,” will be held in Miami – a city with a large Latino population, including an influential Cuban population that has leaned more conservative in recent elections. TelevisaUnivision journalist Enrique Acevedo will moderate the event and will air at 10 p.m. ET.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, last week participated in her own town hall with Univision in Las Vegas. Harris answered roughly a dozen questions from Latino voters – ranging from health care, to immigration, to Trump’s virtues.

Trump is leading among Latinos in his home state of Florida. He has the support of 58% of Hispanic voters, while Harris has the support of 40% of Latinos voters, according to a survey from Marist College released last week.

– Rebecca Morin

Trump, Harris still neck-and-neck in polls 

Trump and Harris remain in a locked battle weeks away from Election Day. Several national polls put Harris slightly above Trump but by only a razor-thin lead of one to a few points, making the race essentially still tied.

Among the swing states, Trump holds a narrow advantage in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, according to a New York Times and Siena College poll last month.

– Savannah Kuchar 

Michelle Obama to headline voter turnout event in Atlanta 

Michelle Obama will be in Atlanta later this month, headlining a nonpartisan get out the vote event aimed specifically at energizing first-time voters.

The Oct. 29 rally, which is also advertised to include other unnamed celebrities and civic leaders, is part of a nationwide voter turnout campaign hosted by When We All Vote. The former first lady launched the initiative in 2018 with the aim of “helping to close the race and age gap” in voting.

Like her husband, former President Barack Obama, Michelle Obama has backed Harris and took the stage at the Democratic National Convention in August. But her group, and the upcoming Peach State event, are not affiliated with either campaign or party.

– Savannah Kuchar 

Harris sits for interview with Charlamagne Tha God

Kamala Harris remained open to reparations for slavery and agreed with an accusation that Donald Trump supports fascism in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday with popular radio host Charlamagne Tha God.

"This is a margin-of-error race. It's tight. I'm gonna win. I'm gonna win, but it's tight," Harris told listeners at the top of an hour-long interview, three weeks before Election Day as the Democratic nominee expands her outreach to Black voters, in particular, Black men.

-Joey Garrison

What's on Trump's schedule today?

Trump took part in a pre-taped television town hall hosted by Fox News on Tuesday. The event was slated to focus on issues particularly impacting female voters, and the hour-long event featured an all-female audience.

The show is set to air Wednesday at 11 a.m. ET.

– Margie Cullen

Where is Kamala Harris today?

Kamala Harris is sitting down Wednesday for her first-ever formal interview with Fox News. She'll answer questions from the outlet's chief political anchor Bret Baier in the interview set to take place near Philadelphia.

The vice president has zeroed in on campaign stops in Pennsylvania in recent weeks, with the commonwealth expected to be a pivotal swing state in November.

– Marina Pitofsky

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Election 2024 updates: Harris Fox interview, Trump town hall