Welcome to the online version of From the political editorial teaman evening newsletter that brings you the latest reporting and analysis from the NBC News Politics team from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.
In today’s edition, we examine how Donald Trump is dealing with the political fallout from CNN’s eye-opening report on North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson. Plus, Meet the Press host Kristen Welker analyzes how the polls have changed over the past two months ahead of a new NBC News poll this weekend.
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Trump has no plans to withdraw his support for Mark Robinson after the alleged porn site scandal
By Matt Dixon, Katherine Doyle, Olympia Sonnier and Kristen Welker
Both his allies and his own campaign team are calling on Donald Trump to withdraw his support for scandal-plagued North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, four people familiar with the discussions say.
So far, however, there are no plans by the former president to officially drop him.
CNN reported Thursday that Robinson posted a series of offensive comments on a porn website between 2008 and 2012, before he served as lieutenant governor. In a statement, the Trump campaign did not directly address the underlying reporting on Robinson, whom the former president endorsed in March and called “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
“President Trump’s campaign is focused on winning the White House and saving the country,” said Karoline Leavitt, his campaign’s press secretary. “North Carolina is an essential part of that plan. We are confident that President Trump will win the Tarheel State again when voters compare Trump’s record of a strong economy, low inflation, a secure border and safe roads with the failure of Biden-Harris.”
There are some advisers on the Trump campaign who have been quietly urging him to withdraw his support for Robinson, but those calls have so far fallen on deaf ears, according to one campaign official who, like others interviewed in this article, was granted anonymity to speak freely about the matter.
In addition, Republican members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation, including Senators Ted Budd and Thom Tillis and North Carolina-born Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley, sought to pressure Trump in confidential talks to withdraw his support for Robinson, according to a person familiar with the talks.
The political fallout from Robinson’s past comments could be particularly harsh for Trump because North Carolina is so important as one of the seven key swing states on the presidential map. But Trump rarely publicly retracts his endorsements because he has long believed they make him look weak.
Robinson will not attend a Trump rally planned for Saturday in Wilmington, North Carolina, according to a person familiar with the event’s planning, although he has attended previous Trump events in the state.
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This is how the Democrats deal with it: Democrats have been quick to try to capitalize on the Robinson scandal. The DNC has run digital ads and billboards featuring Trump singing Robinson’s praises, while a new Harris campaign ad links Trump to Robinson’s past anti-abortion comments. But as Ben Kamisar notes, neither campaign mentions the inflammatory comments depicted in the CNN report.
What has changed in the last two months of the 2024 race?
By Kristen Welker
The last time we published a national NBC News poll was in July. That poll was conducted before President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race and the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump occurred.
Think of everything else that has happened in the two months since then: two party conventions, two vice presidential elections, a second alleged assassination attempt on Trump, and the first (and probably only) debate between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
And guess what: On Sunday, NBC News will release a new “Meet the Press” poll that will hopefully capture everything that has happened since July.
I won’t reveal any numbers from our poll now – you’ll have to tune in on Sunday – but I’ll focus on what other polls have shown over the past two months.
Recent polls on the presidential campaign have revealed three consistent storylines.
1. Thanks to the change at the top of the candidate list, the Democrats are polling better today than they have all year.
2. The situation in the contested states looks more favorable for the Democrats than before. This is especially true for the important Rust Belt states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
3. The presidential election campaign remains exciting, with most national and state poll results well within the margin of error.
Tune in on Sunday to see what our latest poll reveals.
Undecided voters who already have a strong opinion about Trump are now considering whether to support Harris
By Bridget Bowman, Emma Barnett, Alex Tabet and Katherine Koretski
Speaking of our previous poll, we reconnected with respondents who were among the 8% who said they were unsure how they would vote in the then-hypothetical Trump-Harris matchup.
Of the 21 voters we spoke to, the largest group was nine voters who said they were undecided but concerned about Trump and leaning toward Harris. Four more definitely support Harris, while one supports Trump and three are leaning toward him. Four have no plans to vote.
Voters, who come from different backgrounds and parts of the country, are all skeptical of politics and politicians. While some of them are still unsure about Harris, many have strong opinions about Trump, who is running in his third national campaign. Some are adamant that they will not vote for him under any circumstances.
“I need to learn more about her, first of all,” said 38-year-old Kenneth Hauck, a software tester from San Diego. He recently watched a YouTube video about Harris and Trump’s policies and Harris’s housing plan piqued his interest. Hauck said Harris’ policies “seem good.” But, he added, “the devil is in the details.”
Norna, 19, a fast-food restaurant worker in Florida who did not want to give her last name, said she was particularly interested in Harris’ stance on “police brutality,” her support for the Palestinians and her economic policies.
“Based on what I’ve seen so far, I’m definitely not going to vote for Trump,” she said.
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🗞️ Today’s top stories
- 👀 Voting Watch: Trump’s allies on the Georgia Elections Board have voted to require counties to hand-count ballots in the November election, despite warnings from both parties that doing so could cause delays and disruptions. Read more →
- 🗳️ Election campaigns: The Supreme Court has rejected Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s final bid to be placed on the Nevada ballot. Read more →
- ☑️ Voters vote: In Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia, early voting in person began today. Read more →
- 🛡️ Security boost: The House of Representatives has passed a bill to increase Secret Service protection for major presidential candidates and their running mates. Read more →
- 🏛️ Divided government: Harris faces the possibility that the Senate will be dominated by Republicans if she is elected president, which could thwart her legislative agenda and nominations for her administration and the courts. Read more →
- 🗺️ An overview: While Republicans in Nebraska are considering changing state law to give Trump an additional vote in the Electoral College this fall, their Democratic opponents in Maine have little chance of achieving balance. Read more →
- 🇺🇲 Appeal from FLOTUS: First Lady Jill Biden stressed in an interview with Peter Alexander that “we need a peaceful transition of power” and called on Americans to “come together” despite deep political divisions. Read more →
- 👉 Blame: At an event supposedly dedicated to combating anti-Semitism, Trump said Jewish voters would bear “a lot” of the blame if he lost the election in November. Read more →
- ♻️ Apocalypse delayed: Alex Seitz-Wald notes that in the race against Harris in 2024, Trump is reusing several of the dire predictions from his campaign against Biden (which never came true). Read more →
- Follow the live coverage of the election campaign →
That’s all from the Politics Department for now. If you have any feedback – likes or dislikes – email us at [email protected]
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