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The House unveiled a bipartisan spending bill to temporarily fund the government through Dec. 20. It doesn’t include the SAVE Act, the Trump-backed election security proposal that would require people to show proof of citizenship to register as a voter. Speaker Mike Johnson plans to vote on the legislation by Wednesday. It would then head to the Senate ahead of the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline. The bill generally funds agencies at current levels, but directs an additional $231 million to the Secret Service. Last week, House Republicans rejected their own funding bill after Trump demanded that the government be shut down if legislation requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote isn’t passed. (
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The Georgia State Election Board approved a new rule requiring all ballots to be hand-counted on Election Day. The Republican-controlled board pushed the measure through over the opposition of Georgia’s Republican secretary of state and attorney general, and dozens of local election officials who said the last-minute change could delay certification and cause confusion on election night. The vote was 3-2, with three Trump allies supporting the move, and a Democratic and independent Republican-appointed member strongly opposing it. The new rule requires counties to count the number of ballots cast to make sure the count matches the ballots tallied by voting machines. It does not require hand tabulation of how people voted. (
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A Nebraska Republican state lawmaker blocked a Trump-backed effort to change how the state awards its five electoral votes. Mike McDonnell said he wouldn’t support the effort to change the state’s electoral system to winner take all. The outcome that could have cost Kamala Harris an electoral vote. Nebraska is one of two states — the other is Maine — that awards its electoral votes by congressional district. (
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The Justice Department said the man suspected of attempting to assassinate Trump last week left a note stating “this was an assassination attempt.” In one note, addressed to “The World,” Ryan Routh said “I failed you,” urging others to “finish the job.” He offered $150,000 to anyone who managed to kill Trump. Also found in his car was a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to set to appear. Routh will be held without bail while he awaits his trial. (
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North Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, who is Black, referred to himself as a “black NAZI,” praised Adolf Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf,” and expressed support for reinstating slavery, according comments he posted on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago. Mark Robinson
said he’s staying in the race. Robinson, who has advocated for anti-transgender rights and has made comments critical of trans people, also posted about how he enjoyed watching transgender pornography, describing himself as a “perv” who liked “tranny on girl porn.” Trump – who once praised Robinson as “Martin Luther King on steroids” – declined to formally withdraw his endorsement, saying “This is an issue that has to do with Robinson’s campaign and not President Trump’s campaign.” JD Vance, meanwhile,
said the allegations against Robinson “aren’t necessarily reality.” Most of Robinson’s
campaign staff have since
stepped down. (
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Trump said “that will be it” if he loses the presidency in November. When asked if he’d make a fifth consecutive presidential run in 2028 if he loses, Trump said “No, I don’t. I think that will be, that will be it. I don’t see that at all. I think that hopefully we’re gonna be successful.” Trump, 78, would be 82 in 2028 – a year older than Biden is now. He is the oldest presidential nominee in history. (
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Trump said it’s “too late to do another” debate after Kamala Harris accepted an invitation from CNN for a second debate on Oct. 23. “She’s done one debate. I’ve done two. It’s too late to do another. I’d love to, in many ways, but it’s too late. The voting is cast,” Trump said. “She’s had her chance to do it with Fox.” The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, launched a billboard campaign calling Trump “chicken” for not agreeing to a second debate. The billboards include a digitally altered image of Trump in a chicken suit alongside the words “There’s no debate: Donald Trump’s a chicken.” (
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The U.S. is sending “a small number” of troops to the Middle East following Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Hezbollah targets that killed at least 490 people, including dozens of women and children, and wounded more than 1,645 others. The U.S.
currently has about 40,000 troops in the region, and that
new detachment was being sent “in light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution.” Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militant group, has launched some 9,000 rockets and drones into Israel since last October in support of Hamas, which has prompted Israeli counterattacks. On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to take “whatever action is necessary” to change the “balance of power” on its northern border with Lebanon, and that Israel will not “wait for the threat — we take action before it.” Today, Israeli fighter jets struck more than 1,300 “terrorist targets” inside Lebanon that were linked to Hezbollah. (
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