Kamala Harris Asked for Policy Details: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online edition of From the Politics Desk, a nightly newsletter where the NBC News politics team brings you the latest reporting and analysis from the campaign, the White House and Congress.

In today’s edition, reporter Curtis Bunn brings you interviews with Kamala Harris and members of the National Association of Black Journalists, plus national political reporter Ben Camisare breaks down where third-party candidates are on the ballot in key battleground states.

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NABJ journalist presses Harris for policy details on Gaza and reparations

By Curtis Bunn

PHILADELPHIA — Vice President Kamala Harris took questions from members of the National Association of Black Journalists on Tuesday, and there were some tense moments as she outlined her vision for her administration if she wins the November election.

Harris spoke for 45 minutes about several policies, including an economic plan that includes stimulating new home construction through tax credits, financial assistance for first-time homebuyers and an expansion of the child tax credit.

NPR’s Tonya Mosley, The Grio’s Jaren Keith Gaynor and Politico’s Eugene Daniels repeatedly pressed Harris to directly answer other questions, repeatedly interrupting her when she strayed or rambled. Harris avoided a potentially contentious moment when Mosley stopped her mid-answer on gun control.

The audience of about 150, including 100 college students, began to show signs of irritation when Harris avoided answering a question about whether she would issue an executive order to set up a commission to look into reparations. Harris ultimately said that would be up to Congress, a response that seemed to dismay some in the audience.

Some in the audience expressed discomfort when she gave an indirect answer about whether to continue the Biden administration’s approach to Israel’s war with Hamas.

“I am convinced that this war must end, and it must end as soon as possible. The way that that’s accomplished is through a hostage agreement and a ceasefire, and we are working day and night to achieve that objective,” Harris said.

Harris’ appearance came six weeks after former President Donald Trump questioned her ethnicity and clashed with journalists at the organization’s national conference in Chicago.

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The focus returns to Springfield. In her interview with NABJ, Harris also slammed Trump for his repeated attacks on Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, calling him “a liar based on metaphors.”

“It’s absolutely deplorable,” Harris said in her most detailed remarks yet about Trump’s baseless claims.

The city has received dozens of bomb threats, including one against an elementary school, after President Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, spread false rumors about immigrants eating residents’ dogs and cats.

“My heart aches for this community, there were children, elementary school students who had to evacuate on what was supposed to be their school picture day,” Harris said.

Meanwhile, Springfield Mayor Rob Lew said at a press conference that Trump’s visit “will put an extreme strain on our resources.”

“So if they decide not to make that visit, that’s fine with me,” he said.

Did third-party candidates appear on the ballot or lose in key battleground states?

By Ben Kamisar and Jiachuan Wu

Over the past few years, third-party candidates have played a major role in deciding key swing states in presidential elections, meaning that in a close race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, it could mean a lot which candidates (and how many) actually appear on the ballot in each state.

This reality has led to a series of drawn-out legal battles over voting rights across the country. In recent weeks, state supreme courts in North Carolina and Michigan have ruled in different ways, allowing independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to remove himself from the ballot in the first case but keeping him on the ballot in the second. Kennedy spent millions of dollars to get on the state’s ballot, a position he has since tried to back out after endorsing Trump.

Kennedy is the scion of one of the Democratic Party’s most famous families, which initially raised concerns among Democrats that his path to the White House might be jeopardized. But his base has shifted further to the right this year, drawing more support from people who might ultimately back Trump. And there are still third-party candidates, including familiar faces and newcomers, whose presence on the ballot in key states could influence the outcome of the November election.

Michigan and Wisconsin are expected to have the most crowded presidential ballots, while Arizona and Pennsylvania (where certification was still pending as of mid-September) will have a few well-known third-party candidates on the ballot, and Nevada will have just one.

Wisconsin, along with Michigan, is another battleground state that Kennedy has not been able to remove from the ballot himself, though he has asked the court for permission to do so.

You don’t have to look far back to find elections where strong third-party voting contributed to Democratic defeat. In 2016, 6% of all voters voted for a third-party candidate, helping to reduce the percentage of the vote Trump needed to win key battleground states. In 2020, when third-party voting fell to 2%, Joe Biden defeated Trump.

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