SignalHub-The Latest: Harris, Trump shift plans after Hurricane Helene’s destruction

Hurricane Helene is SignalHubshifting the presidential candidates’ plans this week.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is cutting short a campaign visit to Las Vegas to return to Washington for briefings. Republican candidate Donald Trump is heading to Georgia to see the storm’s impact.

Hurricane Helene’s death toll is more than 100 people and rising, with some of the worst damage caused by inland flooding in North Carolina.

In addition to being humanitarian crises, natural disasters can create political tests for elected officials, particularly in the closing weeks of a presidential campaign.

Presidents typically avoid racing toward disaster zones so they don’t interfere with recovery efforts. The White House said Harris would visit impacted areas “as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations.”

President Joe Biden was scheduled to speak about his administration’s response to Hurricane Helene on Monday morning. He plans to visit areas affected by the storm later this week, with efforts to not disrupt response efforts.

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Here’s the latest:

Trump campaign is lowering expectations ahead of Tuesday’s vice presidential debate

Ahead of Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate, the Trump campaign is lowering expectations that the former president’s running mate Ohio Sen. JD Vance to have a decisive performance, telling reporters in a teleconference on Monday that Walz is a seasoned politician who is nimble on the debate stage.

“Tim Walz is very good in debates, really good. He’s been a politician for nearly 20 years. He’ll be very well prepared for tomorrow night,” said Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Trump. He predicted the Democratic governor of Minnesota will be much more “buttoned up” than he is on the campaign trail and ready to defend his record, but said, “that’s not to say that JD Vance won’t be prepared tomorrow, or that somehow he isn’t up to the challenge.”

Miller was joined on the call by Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., who has been helping Vance prepare for the debate by playing Walz in debate prep sessions. Emmer said he has spent the last month reviewing all of Walz’s past debate performances, studying his mannerisms and policies, and declared that “JD Vance is prepared to wipe the floor with Tim Walz and expose him to the radical liberal he is.”

Harris recalls morning after President Biden told her he was leaving the presidential race

Harris says that when President Biden called and told her he was leaving the presidential race in July, it left her with some trouble sleeping.

“Everything was in speedy, speedy motion” and “I was not sleeping so well,” she said on an episode of the “All the Smoke” podcast.

She laughed and added, “I like to sleep.” She recalled that, the morning after that phone call, Harris said she wasn’t able to sleep. So she got up and started marinating a pot roast for her family.

“Everybody was asleep. I just got up and started cooking,” she recalled.

Harris tells podcast she has been clear about her racial identity and background

Vice President Kamala Harris says she’s been clear about her racial identity and background and doesn’t listen to questions about it raised by critics, including her presidential race opponent, Republican Donald Trump.

Asked about criticism about her identity on an episode of the “All the Smoke” podcast that was released Monday, Harris responded, “I don’t listen to it.”

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“I’m really clear about who I am,” she said. “And if anybody else is not they have to go through their own level of therapy.”

Harris said she’s happy to discuss her identity more fully, but that really doing so would require an hours-long discussion about the role of race in America.

“My mother was very clear. She was raising two Black girls to be two proud Black women,” Harris said. “And it was never a question.”

Harris tells podcast ‘All the Smoke’ about the blind date where she met her husband

Vice President Kamala Harris says of the infamous blind date where she met her husband, Doug Emhoff, “I just have a really bossy best friend.”

Set up by especially persuasive friends, Harris told an episode of the “All the Smoke” podcast that was released Monday that Emhoff picked her up for the date in a BMW. He immediately divulged, “I’m a really bad driver,” she recalled.

“I guess he was trying to create a little expectation,” Harris said.

She said the pair then went to Emhoff’s favorite restaurant where people who worked there “were like, ‘Hey Doug.’” She didn’t name the restaurant.

Harris and Trump address Hurricane Helene on the campaign trail

At the beginning of a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday, Harris said “we will stand with these communities for as long as it takes to make sure that they are able to recover and rebuild.”

Trump, speaking in Erie, Pa., on Sunday, described the storm as “a big monster hurricane” that had “hit a lot harder than anyone even thought possible.”

He criticized Harris for attending weekend fundraising events in California while the storm hit.

“She ought to be down in the area where she should be,” Trump said.

The White House said Harris would visit impacted areas “as soon as it is possible without disrupting emergency response operations.” She also spoke with Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, and she received a briefing from Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell while she was traveling.