President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris joined forces on the campaign trail Monday in the marquee union town of Pittsburgh, making the case that their administration’s record on labor would again lift workers if Harris were sent to the White House. 

It was a Labor Day showing in a battleground state on what is traditionally the political kickoff to the fall campaign season. But it was a tradition bypassed by President Donald Trump, who in an unusual move did not hit the trail either Sunday or Monday.

Trump does have several stops planned for later in the week, including in North Carolina and Wisconsin, as well as a town hall in Pennsylvania and a visit to the Economic Club of New York. His campaign did not respond to a request for comment. 

In a rarity for the president, Biden spoke before Harris at the rally, a sign he is giving her space to shine as the two attempt to help Democrats retain power.

Biden personally vouched for Harris, pledging to help “from the sidelines.” After saying Harris had a spine like a “ramrod” and the morals of a “saint,” Biden held Harris’ hand, and the two hugged. Chants of “thank you, Joe,” broke out as Biden began his speech. 

Harris rallied the crowd, saying Americans should thank unions for the five-day workweek, sick leave, paid family leave and vacation time. 

Amid calls that Trump be locked up, Harris interrupted, saying: “The courts will handle that, and we’ll handle November.”

Harris urged Pennsylvanians to vote early, reminding them that early voting is not far off. Residents in the state will be able to begin casting ballots as early as Sept. 16.

Harris also downplayed any punditry about her campaign pulling ahead of Trump.

“We know this is going to be a tight race until the very end,” she said. “Let’s not pay too much attention to those polls.” 

Recent polls have shown Harris has picked up ground since Biden left the top of the ticket. Harris has an edge over Trump, but the numbers remain within the margin of error.

Biden, who has long touted himself as the most pro-union president, spent part of the speech ticking through his contributions to labor. He tapped some old standby lines, including saying, “Wall Street didn’t build America; unions built America and unions built the middle class.” He reminded the crowd he was the first president to walk a picket line. 

He also lauded building and investments during his administration, including in Pennsylvania, which has received $17 billion in infrastructure investments. Biden hit Trump for promising, but not coming through on, advancing infrastructure. 

“He didn’t build a damn thing — nothing!” Biden said of Trump. 

Biden said Harris was carrying the ball forward on defending labor rights, saying: “I’ll be on the sidelines. But I’ll do everything I can to help.”

CNN
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A Pennsylvania judge has determined that three 2020 election deniers must pay nearly $1 million in fees as the result of a years-long legal dispute with state officials over voting equipment used during the last presidential race, according to recent court filings.

Recommendations from the judge, who was appointed to serve as a special master overseeing the case, attach a dollar figure to sanctions previously imposed by the state’s Supreme Court against two Republican county commissioners and their attorney for allowing an outside firm to examine voting equipment after the 2020 election – despite a court order prohibiting them to do so, according to the new filings.

The case, which dates back to 2021, involves actions taken by two Fulton County, Pennsylvania, commissioners – Stuart Ulsh and Randy Bunch – who sought to have Dominion voting equipment examined by a third-party after the 2020 election. Many of former President Donald Trump’s allies falsely blamed Dominion’s software for his election defeat.

Thomas Carroll, an attorney who also served as a pro-Trump fake elector in 2020, was also sanctioned by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for his conduct and – along with the county and the county commissioners – “shall be jointly and severally responsible” for paying nearly $1 million in fees to cover the Pennsylvania Secretary of State’s legal bills, according to the special master’s latest report.

The state Supreme Court will ultimately use the special master recommendations in awarding fees and costs resulting from the case.

Last week’s special master report marks one of the final chapters of the Fulton County voting equipment dispute – one of several legal battles over unauthorized access to election systems that emerged from the 2020 presidential race.

In Fulton County, multiple outside firms were ultimately given unauthorized access to voting systems after the 2020 election without authorization from the Board of Elections, according to previous court filings in the special master probe. The third county commissioner only learned that an outside firm had been allowed to inspect the election equipment until after it was done, court filings show.

None of the third party groups granted access to the voting systems in Fulton County were contracted by the county itself or had the proper accreditation to carry out such an inspection, according to court records.

In July 2021, upon learning of the unauthorized inspection, the secretary of state’s office argued that the inspection itself had compromised the integrity of the equipment by undermining chain of custody requirements and access limitations necessary to prevent tampering.

The state secretary issued a directive barring county boards of elections from providing access to third parties seeking to examine state-certified voting systems. The directive provided for the revocation of funding from counties whose machines had been decertified under the directive and stated that Pennsylvania would not reimburse any cost of replacement voting equipment that had to be withdrawn.

The commissioners and their lawyers then launched legal proceedings.

During the proceedings, the state secretary learned that Fulton County intended to allow another entity, Envoy Sage LLC, to inspect the equipment. The secretary sought and received a protective order from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court barring such an inspection. In January 2022, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court entered the protective order.

Months after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court entered the protective order, the commissioners nonetheless allowed another party – Speckin Forensics – to inspect the voting equipment without the knowledge of the state, according to court papers. After the completion of that report, the county moved to sue Dominion, arguing that the machines were not fit for their intended use and purpose.

When Pennsylvania state officials brought the action to the attention of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the court issued sanctions. It ordered the county officials to pay attorney’s fees and referred their attorney, Thomas Carroll to Pennsylvania’s attorney disciplinary board. The court also ordered the Dominion voting equipment to be placed in the custody of a neutral agent.

By Stephanie Kelly

REHOBOTH BEACH (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will join Vice President Kamala Harris on the campaign trail this week for the first time since Harris replaced him at the top of the Democratic ticket, but the discovery of Israeli hostage deaths in Gaza over the weekend is likely to overshadow events.

This week marks the start of the vital post-Labor Day sprint to the Nov. 5 election, and both Harris and her Republican challenger former President Donald Trump are expected to ramp up outreach to voters, especially in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada.

Over the weekend, Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza where it said they were recently killed by Hamas, sparking sharp criticism of the Biden administration’s ceasefire strategy and new pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring the remaining hostages home.

The U.S. government, including Biden himself, has been trying to broker a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200, for months. The issue is weighing on the U.S. election, with pro-Palestinian activists threatening to ramp up protests of Harris on the campaign trail and Republicans blaming Biden and Harris for the hostage deaths.

On Monday, Biden and Harris will campaign together in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of the most important battleground states in this election cycle. Harris will also travel to Detroit, Michigan and her vice presidential pick Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will travel to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Before they campaign, though, Biden and Harris will meet at the White House with the U.S. hostage deal negotiating team to discuss efforts toward a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages, the White House said.

Meanwhile, Trump will participate in a FOX town hall on Wednesday hosted by Sean Hannity, and later this week will address the Fraternal Order of Police at their fall meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina and hold a rally in Wisconsin.

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that Harris was leading the race against Trump 45% to 41%.

Harris and Walz are hoping to keep up the enthusiasm her entry into the race on July 21 sparked among Democrats, who are donating record amounts of money to the campaign and volunteering by the tens of thousands. They have focused on an upbeat, positive message about America’s future, cost-cutting plans aimed at the middle class and attracting Republicans turned off by Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump and his vice presidential pick JD Vance have struggled to find a clear line of attack against Harris, painting her both as an unrepentant liberal and as the inheritor of Biden’s more centrist policies, while also bashing her intelligence and spreading crude internet memes.

An outside adviser to Trump previously told Reuters on condition of anonymity that several advisers had told Trump that a continued focus on insults rather than policy could doom his chances in November.

Harris’ campaign appears to be outraising Trump’s – last week, the Harris campaign told the Federal Election Commission that it raised $204 million in July, compared with $48 million reported to the body by Trump’s main fundraising group. Both sides are bombarding battleground states with TV ads.

HOSTAGE BODIES COMPLICATE CEASEFIRE TALKS

Biden, Harris and Trump all released statements over the weekend after the six hostage bodies were found. Biden said he was “devastated and outraged,” adding, “Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages.”

Harris said she and her husband had spoken to the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, one of the hostages whose body was found. “As they mourn this terrible loss, they are not alone. Our nation mourns with them.”

Trump said the “Hostage Crisis in Israel is only taking place because Comrade Kamala Harris is weak and ineffective, and has no idea what she’s doing.”

Leat Corinne Unger, a family member of 21-year-old Israeli hostage Omer Shem Tov, who was not one of the hostages found over the weekend, told Reuters that “everyone has failed.”

“Everyone has blood on their hands,” she said. “The international community failed, the administration, on both sides, bipartisan, they failed.”

“It’s time for the suffering of innocents to end on all sides of the spectrum and the international community must hold Hamas accountable,” she added. “They have said a lot of things, but they haven’t done anything to force their hand.”

Biden and Harris are likely to face more questions about what the administration is doing to secure a hostage deal, said Jeremi Suri, history and public affairs professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

“The best scenario for Biden and Harris would be a ceasefire this week,” Suri said. “Israeli public is pushing and Hamas seems open, but it is very hard to predict.”

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by James Oliphant. Editing by Heather Timmons and Marguerita Choy)