On the campaign trail, Donald Trump threatened businesses that send jobs south of the border, while his own company that runs the Truth Social platform outsourced coding jobs to workers in Mexico, outraging some staff members. by Robert Faturechi, Justin Elliott and Alex Mierjeski, for ProPublica ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. Donald Trump’s social media company outsourced jobs to workers in Mexico even as Trump publicly railed against outsourcing on the campaign trail and threatened heavy tariffs on companies that send jobs south of the border. The firm’s use of workers in Mexico was confirmed by a spokesperson for Trump Media, which operates the Truth Social platform. The workers were hired through another entity to code and perform other technical duties, according to a person with knowledge of Trump Media. The reliance on foreign labor was met with outrage among the company's own staff, who accused its leadership of betraying their “America First” ideals, the person said. The outsourcing to Mexico helped prompt a recent whistleblower letter from staff to Trump Media’s board that has been roiling the company. RELATED STORY:Truth Social stock craters on first day Trump can sell his shares

Vice President Kamala Harris gets personal in what is likely the final ad for her 2024 campaign. xMy mother, Dr. Shyamala Gopalan Harris, came to the United States from India at 19. She taught me and my sister, Maya, about courage and determination. It is thanks to her that I am ready to lead us forward. pic.twitter.com/rVdVAIylTe— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) November 4, 2024 Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis narrates the ad while Beyonce’s “Freedom,” the campaign’s unofficial anthem, plays in the background. The clip opens with a shot of an infant being cradled by a mother.  “Something cracks open inside you when you become a mother,” Davis says. “You realize long after you're gone, these children will be your legacy. This mother came to America at 19 years old. She stood five feet tall, but she stood tall. Becoming a cancer researcher, birthing two daughters, Kamala and Maya, and, with them, she birthed her legacy.”

Tim Alberta’s weekend story in The Atlantic about the finger-pointing and blame-casting inside Donald Trump’s campaign is must-read.  Let’s take a deeper look into it.  

A cartoon by Tim Campbell. Campaign Action

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. 'We believe in each other': Harris closes campaign with message of hope When he goes low, we go high. Harris leads in the one Iowa poll that matters—with major national implications It’s so close, but this poll gives us hope. Watch right-wing Washington Post columnist quit and walk off livestream There’s nothing better than a Republican hissy fit on air. Trump’s team cooks up wild new theory for why he's going to win When in doubt, just make up your own numbers. Trump campaign running out of steam in Michigan There’s a limit for how much hot air Trump can blow at his rallies before people leave. MAGA must be so proud: Trump appears to perform sex act on mic stand The circle of insanity is complete. Cartoon: The Puppeteer It’s clear who is pulling the strings. No noise, just policy: Where Trump and Harris stand on guns One of them advocates using violence against dissenters, for instance. State of the Race: Leave everything on the field Because at the end of the day, it’s about voters showing up.

This four-part series examines the candidates' positions and policy proposals in an effort to cut through the noise and highlight where Kamala Harris and Donald Trump stand on critical issues facing Americans in this election. Information is sourced from campaign websites and what the candidates have said on the trail and in interviews. The contrast between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on gun policy highlights a significant ideological divide within American politics—with potentially fatal consequences.  Throughout her campaign, Harris has pushed back on the GOP narrative that lawmakers who support common-sense reforms actually want to take away people’s guns. Trump and Republicans are clearly out of touch on this issue, with research showing that six in 10 Americans favor stricter gun laws.  Trump has little mention of guns on his campaign website or policy agenda. He’s a “life member” of the National Rifle Association and has the group’s endorsement. Despite this affiliation, Trump canceled an appearance at an NRA event in October—one of many appearances the former president bailed on in the runup to the Nov. 5 election.  Kamala Harris’ Gun Policy Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally on Oct. 28 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Harris advocates for proactive measures aimed at reducing gun violence in “schools, communities, and places of worship,” appealing to a majority of the electorate that favors stricter gun laws. Her proposals reflect a comprehensive strategy designed to address mass shootings and tackle the systemic issues surrounding gun violence across the nation. Ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines Assault weapons with high-capacity magazines can shoot multiple rounds in seconds and kill or injure scores of people during a violent outburst. These differ dramatically from handguns and hunting rifles. Harris proposes banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in an effort to reduce the death and destruction caused by mass shootings in America.  Support red flag laws  Red flag laws are legal provisions that allow law enforcement agencies or family members to use the court system to temporarily remove guns from those who are deemed a danger to themselves or others. A few states have passed these regulations, and Harris says she’ll support red flag laws to “keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.” Require universal background checks These laws require all gun buyers to undergo a background check, regardless of how or where they purchase the firearm. This would include private sales, gun shows, and online purchases. A key goal of universal background checks is closing the gun show loophole, which lets patrons purchase firearms on the spot without any background checks. Invest in law enforcement to combat community gun violence Harris supports investing in police departments, including hiring and training officers and people to support them, such as mental health care workers. Her campaign website highlights how the vice president helped deliver “the largest investment in public safety ever,” which included $15 billion for local law enforcement and community safety programs across the country. She wants to build upon proven gun violence prevention programs that have helped reduce violent crime nationwide. x x YouTube Video Donald Trump’s Gun Policy Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on Nov. 1 in Warren, Michigan. Trump's lack of specific gun policy proposals signals that he intends to maintain the status quo, appealing to his gun-loving base and aligning with the NRA. His repeated false claims that Harris seeks to «confiscate your guns» resonates with the Republicans who feel threatened by potential changes to gun laws.  Unspecific stance other than to preserve “the right to keep and bear arms” According to Trump’s 2024 Republican Platform, he and the GOP will “defend our constitution, our bill of rights, and our fundamental freedoms, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to keep and bear arms.” Attack the opponent’s stance Trump's campaign has said that he will «terminate every single one of the Harris-Biden's attacks on law-abiding gun owners his first week in office and stand up for our constitutionally enshrined right to bear arms.» The former president also regularly declares in his stump speeches that Harris wants to “confiscate your guns”—something she consistently denies. This article is part of a four-part series. The previous entries explored the economy and health care policy.  Daily Kos is working overtime to cover this election. Unfortunately, ad revenue alone can't support our operations, so we need your help. Please support our work with a $5 donation. Campaign Action

A cartoon by Clay Bennett. Campaign Action

The former president’s attempts to shift toward the political center this summer angered extremist supporters. To win them back, Trump renewed his attacks on immigrants. It worked. By Eric Pape, for Capital & Main When Kamala Harris quickly took the lead in most national and swing state polls in early August and consolidated her advance deep into September, Donald Trump tried to move toward the center to win over potentially decisive moderate voters. On the far right, some saw this as betrayal. Christian nationalist podcaster Nick Fuentes lambasted Trump for going weak-kneed on issues like abortion and the 2020 election results. Fuentes, recalling his past glee over MAGA, questioned whether it still made sense to vote for Trump. In the latter half of the summer, Fuentes was hardly the only prominent far-right influencer or media voice dissatisfied with Trump’s presidential campaign. On Aug. 7, Internet personality and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer posted about “weak” Trump surrogates speaking on his behalf and calling for him to tap into “better talent in his arsenal.” She hinted at infighting, saying, “A lot of people are wondering why so many people with talent are being sidelined.” She said that the situation “needs to change FAST because we can’t talk about a stolen election for another 4 years.” It is, she added, “Time for some offense.” The next day, Fuentes — whom Trump helped make famous when the self-described neo-Nazi and the rapper Ye (formerly Kanye West) dined with him at Mar-a-Lago in 2022 — escalated his warnings in a post on X (formerly Twitter), where he has 423,000 followers. The Trump campaign, he wrote, had been “hijacked by the same consultants, lobbyists, & donors that he defeated in 2016, and they’re blowing it.” In a post that has been viewed 2.7 million times, Fuentes warned, “Without serious changes, we are headed for a catastrophic loss.” Right-wing influencer Candace Owens, who has 5.7 million followers on X, put out a podcast episode a week later entitled “MAGA Civil War!? What’s going on with the Trump Campaign.” The main gripe of all three — and many others — was that Trump wasn’t attacking hard enough on immigration.

The polls show the race neck and neck. And congrats to those of you who are more motivated by being behind: If the final election results were to mirror current polling, Vice President Kamala Harris would lose the election to Donald Trump. But what if the polls don’t match reality? 

Ann Selzer’s Iowa Poll for the Des Moines Register came out Saturday, and it’s a political thermonuclear bomb: Kamala Harris: 47 Donald Trump: 44 The previous poll had Trump up 47-43 in September, and leading President Joe Biden 50-32 in June. And this matters far beyond saying “it’s just one poll.” 

Donald Trump and his allies have been misinforming the public about the federal response to Hurricane Helene, be it with lies or conspiracy theories.  Trump’s first administration was a disaster for our environment—but he and his friends are far from done. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s agenda for a potential second Trump administration, includes dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Agency—the U.S. agency that forecasts weather—and greatly limiting the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s ability to respond. Here are some examples of how poorly the Trump administration managed our country’s toughest times.

Sally Field, the Academy Award-winning actress, told her harrowing story of procuring an illegal abortion in Mexico when she was 17, in an Instagram video posted on Sunday.  “I’ve been so hesitant to do this, to tell my horrific story,” the famed actress wrote on Instagram. “It was during a time even worse than now. A time when contraception was not readily available and only if you were married. But I feel that so many women of my generation went through similar, traumatic events and I feel stronger when I think of them.” «I feel still very shamed about it, because I was raised in the 50s, and, you know, it's ingrained in me,” she said. “And I was 17. I had no choices in my life.» In the video, Field details traveling with her mother and two others to a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, where she was not provided a real anesthetic. She also details being molested by a clinic technician and then being rushed out of the facility because abortion was against the law.  Nevertheless, the abortion, as horrible as Field’s experience was, allowed her to start her career in acting. «I began auditioning, and by the end of that year, I was Gidget,” she said, referring to her role as the title character on the beloved TV show that launched her career.  “I was the quintessential all-American girl next door,” Field says, adding, “In reality, I was the quintessential all-American girl next door because so many young women—my generation of women—were going through this, and these are the things that women are going through now.» x x YouTube Video Field joins other famous women, like Stevie Nicks, Chrissy Teigen, Halsey, and numerous others who watched the conservative majority on the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade and eliminate the constitutional right to abortion. Help Kamala Harris win the White House with your donation today!

It’s textbook hypocrisy: House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday that he won’t commit to reconvening his chamber to pass additional disaster-relief funding, yet he criticizes the federal government’s response as lacking.  “We’ll be back in session immediately after the election,” Johnson said, after refusing to commit to bringing House members back to vote. “That’s 30 days from now. The thing about these hurricanes and disasters of this magnitude is it takes a while to calculate the actual damages, and the states are going to need some time to do that,” Johnson said, adding that it takes time to figure out “specific needs and requests based upon the actual damages.” Johnson also recently railed against Biden’s response thus far, noting that lawmakers released $20 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds last month. “[Biden and Harris] are scrambling to cover their egregious errors and mistakes,” the Louisiana Republican told Fox News Digital on Friday. “And there’s an effort to blame others or blame circumstances when this is just purely a lack of leadership and response.”  However, the Department of Homeland Security says FEMA will run out of funding before the end of the hurricane season. Johnson’s hypocrisy comes amid the right spreading conspiracy theories about FEMA’s response to Hurricane Helene—conspiracies that even Republican governors, state officials, state government websites, and FEMA itself have had to debunk. These false claims have not only confused the public but also put unnecessary pressure on local leaders and military personnel working tirelessly to support their communities  in the wake of this disaster.

A cartoon by Pedro Molina. Campaign Action

A daily roundup of the best stories and cartoons by Daily Kos staff and contributors to keep you in the know. Harris is doing tons of media this week, but critics still complain The goalpost-moving continues.  There’s a reason Trump and his minions keep on mispronouncing ‘Kamala’ “Can you say Comma-la?” 👀 State of the Race: 1 month to go It’s crunch time! Here's who to thank for the Harris campaign's historic field operation Trump’s get-out-the-vote campaign has got nothing on Harris’. Obama hits the trail for Harris as Trump teams up with notorious troll A gross Musk followed Trump to Pennsylvania.

Abbreviated Pundit Roundup is a long-running series published every morning that collects essential political discussion and analysis around the internet. We begin today with María Antonia Sánchez-Vallejo of El País in English describing the first day of the unprecedented criminal trial of a former president of the United States. Of the four criminal proceedings he is facing, this is the case Trump dislikes the most, as it mixes personal dirty laundry; the recording of the $130,000 payment as “legal expenses” to hide its dubious nature and, even worse, an alleged violation of campaign finance rules, as the alleged bribe to buy Daniels’ silence had the sole objective of preventing the affair from coming to light in the final stretch of the campaign that ultimately brought him to the White House in 2016. Presided over by Judge Juan Merchan, the trial has begun with jury selection. The questionnaire for the potential candidates—a hundred on Monday, out of a total of 500—has been made public, and it is expected that in the process those who do not respond adequately will be automatically excluded, according to the scale of prosecutors and defense. The fact that all the candidates are residents of Manhattan, an eminently Democratic district, may be a factor that leads to numerous disqualifications by Trump’s lawyers. [...] Before jury selection began, Judge Merchan spent over an hour on preliminary, or procedural, matters in discussions with the prosecution team and defense counsel. One of the main issues concerned permission to show the transcript of the Access Hollywood tape — an embarrassing audio recorded in 2005 in which Trump denigrated women — at trial. Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, who brought the case, had wanted the tape itself to be one of the main exhibits, but on Monday Judge Merchan ruled that only the transcript, not the recording, could be used. He has also refused to incorporate subsequent revealing — and damning — evidence of Trump’s customary treatment of women. In theory, Merchan’s decision is a victory for the defense.

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The Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, and Stephen Wolf, with additional contributions from the Daily Kos Elections team. Subscribe to The Downballot, our weekly podcast x Embedded Content Leading Off ● WA-04: Donald Trump on Friday endorsed former NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler's intra-party bid against Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse, who is one of the two remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the Jan. 6 riot. Trump's backing makes Sessler, who waged an unheralded campaign two years ago, Newhouse's only notable foe in what had been a quiet Aug. 6 top-two primary for Washington's conservative 4th District. However, it remains to be seen whether Democrats will once again consolidate behind a single candidate as they did in 2022, a development that could make it tougher for one of the two Republicans to reach the November general election.

Talking about tax policy is one of the best ways for President Joe Biden to create a contrast with Donald Trump on who will fight for average Americans. As Trump told a group of wealthy campaign donors earlier this month, one of his signature issues if elected president in November will be extending the tax cuts Republicans enacted during his term in 2017—which overwhelmingly benefited wealthy Americans. There's no audio of the statement, but it echoes comments Trump made last year during a private fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago for North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, an extremist Republican who is running for governor. Addressing the audience, Trump called some attendees “rich as hell” before promising, “We’re gonna give you tax cuts!” The Biden campaign spliced that proclamation into an ad where the president is joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.  “When he thinks the cameras aren't on,” Biden says, “he tells his rich friends, ‘We're going to give you tax cuts.’”

Donald Trump has arrived at the Manhattan courtroom of Judge Juan Merchan for the second day of his criminal trial over falsifying business records connected to hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. On Monday, Merchan ruled on several motions from each side and set a hearing date of April 23 for the issue of whether Trump is in violation of his gag order. Merchan kept up a brisk pace in the afternoon, bringing in the first 96 potential jurors before dismissing more than half of them with a single question over their ability to be fair and impartial in this case. The afternoon ended with the first 18 of the remaining potential jurors answering preliminary questions.  Merchan is expected to try to keep Tuesday centered on juror selection. With a reported 500 potential jurors to process, there should be no problem finding enough to fill the jury box, but just getting through them all is going to be an effort.