Principals

1. Trump hack, continued
2. Downballot candidate risks in NC
3. Biden’s UNGA schedule
4. Gensler on the Hill
5. AI for election meddling
6. Harris interviews starting
7. Vance debate prep
8. Global safety survey

PDB: Swing state voters believe Trump’s foreign policy will benefit them more than Harris’

Watch Semafor’s The Next 3 Billion event at UNGA … Trump in Georgia … China unveils stimulus package to boost ailing economy

Trump hack stretched into last week

The alleged Iranian hack of Donald Trump’s orbit continued at least until mid-September and may be ongoing, a document the hackers shared with a progressive publication reveals. The publisher of the newsletter Popular Information, Judd Legum, writes this morning that a source under the name “Robert” shared a set of documents with him, which included a legal letter to The New York Times dated Sept. 15. While the letter has not been published anywhere online, a person at the Times confirmed to Semafor it had been sent with that date, Ben Smith reports. The recency of the documents indicates that the hack is larger than previously reported — and may still be underway. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung didn’t comment on the widening breach but said the hack indicates that Iran “is terrified of the strength and resolve of President Donald J. Trump.”

Could Robinson sink Trump?

Republicans agree Mark Robinson’s gubernatorial campaign is basically over after a report on his graphic and inflammatory online posts, save for the remote chance he’s able to mount a credible defense that sways his many GOP doubters. The party’s latest question, though, is whether a low-polling Robinson could hamper Donald Trump in the state, Semafor’s Burgess Everett and Kadia Goba report. That question is tough to answer definitively but still essential, because Trump has few paths to the White House that don’t include North Carolina. North Carolina has split tickets quite a bit recently, but Harris is running ads linking Trump and Robinson — and some are warning it could be the rare case of a gubernatorial nominee hurting the chances of a presidential nominee. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., underscored the stakes ahead: “I don’t see any scenario where President Trump wins the electoral vote without a path through North Carolina. So he should take it seriously.”

Biden attends his last UNGA

President Biden will address his last UN General Assembly in New York later this morning at a time of global tumult. Expect Biden to discuss his foreign policy achievements by emphasizing his work to rebuild alliances, defend Ukraine amid the Russian invasion, manage competition with China, and address ongoing conflicts. “This will be an important moment to say, where do we go?” a senior administration official said. But some of Biden’s foreign policy aims are slipping away, including his push for a Gaza ceasefire, and his political opponents have sought to paint his foreign policy as a failure. While in New York, Biden will host a summit for the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats and give remarks on climate change on Tuesday, and will attend an event on Ukraine reconstruction and host a reception at the Met on Wednesday.

— Morgan Chalfant

What Democrats will ask Gensler

​​Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler is on the Hill today, testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee, and Semafor got a peek at what the Democrats plan to ask. Expect a mostly friendly audience, but one that’s been frustrated at the agency’s inability to get signature rules policing Wall Street and corporate greenhouse-gas emissions over legal hurdles. “The rule has still not been finalized” appears repeatedly in a memo distributed to Democratic committee members, which includes suggested questions on “egregious” CEO pay, corporate diversity policies, and whether the practice of hedge funds purchasing retail investors’ stock-market orders should be banned in the US, as it is in Europe. But the gavel belongs to Chair Patrick McHenry, whose anti-ESG investing agenda remains stalled in Congress. Gensler will appear separately in front of the Senate Banking Committee Wednesday.

— Liz Hoffman

How foreign actors are using AI in election meddling

Russia and Iran are using generative artificial intelligence to boost their election influence efforts in the US, but the intelligence community does not see the technology as a “revolutionary” tool in those operations. “The IC considers AI a malign influence accelerant, not yet a revolutionary influence tool,” an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence told reporters. In order for AI to pose a greater risk to US elections, adversaries will need to “overcome restrictions built into many AI tools and remain undetected, develop their own sophisticated models, or strategically target and disseminate such content,” the official said. “Foreign actors are behind in each of these three areas.” Intelligence officials say that Russia is putting out the most AI-generated content to further its goal of boosting Donald Trump and denigrating Kamala Harris, while also resorting to other ways of generating fake content like altering videos of Harris’ speeches.

— Morgan Chalfant

Harris interview strategy takes shape

Kamala Harris’ campaign has repeatedly said the national news media’s complaints about the lack of interviews are overblown. Once the convention and the debate were over, staff said, Harris would sit for interviews and speak to members of the press, but she and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would do it in a strategic way with the singular focus of reaching voters in key states. The strategy is starting to take shape. As Semafor first reported on Monday, Harris recorded an interview this week that aired Tuesday morning with Wisconsin Public Radio. It was the second interview the vice president has done in two weeks with local battleground state press, which the campaign contends is more trusted by voters in those states and more likely to reach swing voters. While she is still making time for some national media — Axios reported that she and Trump are likely to appear separately on 60 Minutes — the campaign has also kicked around various ideas of nontraditional digital media that could allow her to reach cord cutters and those not tuning in to local news broadcasts.

— Max Tani

Inside JD Vance’s debate prep

JD Vance is preparing for the vice presidential debate one week from today with “murder boards” and a full mock debate, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott reports. Vance, his team of advisers, his wife Usha, and Trump adviser Jason Miller have also convened meetings over the past month to prepare Vance to go toe-to-toe with Tim Walz. And Vance is leaning on House Republican Majority Whip Tom Emmer to play Walz in the upcoming mock debate; Emmer is studying up on old interview footage of Walz as well as the Trump campaign’s own Vance opposition research. Vance’s preferred strategy stands in stark contrast to that of Donald Trump, who has always been uncomfortable with traditional debate practices, Shelby writes.

El Salvador tops US, others in safety

Seventy-two percent of Americans said they felt safe walking alone at night where they live in 2023, new figures from Gallup show. Interestingly, 88% of people feel the same way in El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele has presided over a massive crackdown on criminal gangs that Salvadorans praise but human rights groups criticize. The US numbers are mostly flat from 2022, even as the FBI reported a decline in crime last year. Globally, 70% of people worldwide reported feeling safe last year. Gallup’s Global Safety report also found that Israelis feel considerably less safe following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack; 68% said so in the survey taken in the attack’s immediate aftermath compared with 82% in 2022.

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: House Republicans have been privately lobbying Donald Trump to appear at an National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser to help them catch up to Democrats in the campaign cash race, but the former president has yet to do so.

Playbook: House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul is expected to begin contempt proceedings against Secretary of State Antony Blinken when he fails to appear for a hearing today on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan despite a subpoena. In a letter to McCaul, Blinken said he was “profoundly disappointed” that McCaul didn’t accept “several reasonable alternatives to the dates unilaterally demanded by the Committee during which I am carrying out the President’s important foreign policy objectives.”

WaPo: As many as half the GOP members of the House are expected to vote against the bill to fund the government into mid-December.

White House

• President Biden is meeting with UN Secretary General António Guterres today following his speech at UNGA.
• First lady Jill Biden appeared at a Clinton Global Initiative event in New York to announce the Pentagon’s plans to spend $500 million on women’s health research.

Congress

• Senate Democrats plan to force a vote on emergency abortion care access. — Axios
• Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., may have run afoul of congressional ethics rules by hiring his fiancée’s daughter and a woman he was having an affair with. — NYT

Outside the Beltway

• A key Republican lawmaker in Nebraska rejected a push for changes to how the state awards Electoral College votes to boost Donald Trump. “I have taken time to listen carefully to Nebraskans and national leaders on both sides of the issue. After deep consideration, it is clear to me that right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change,” state Sen. Mike McDonnell said. — Nebraska Examiner
• The state of California sued Exxon Mobil, accusing the company of falsely characterizing all plastics as recyclable.

Economy

• Federal Reserve officials left open the possibility for another large interest rate cut.

Business

• Visa is facing a possible antitrust lawsuit from the Justice Department. — Bloomberg
• Boeing offered workers a 30% pay increase in order to end an ongoing strike.
• The Federal Trade Commission is expected to approve Chevron’s $53 billion takeover of Hess as soon as this week.

Courts

• Prosecutors unveiled a letter they said Ryan Routh, the suspect in the second attempted assassination of Donald Trump, wrote detailing his plans.
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is trying to get back on the ballot in New York.

Polls

• Fifty-three percent of voting-age Americans nationally believe that Kamala Harris would pursue a foreign policy that benefits people like them, while 47% say the same of Donald Trump, according to new YouGov polling conducted for the Institute for Global Affairs at the Eurasia Group. However, the figures are reversed — and Trump has the edge — when asked of Americans in swing states.
• A majority of Hispanic Americans say that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, an AP-NORC poll found.

On the Trail

• Kamala Harris is expected to visit the southern border when she travels to Arizona on Friday, marking her first stop there since she ascended to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket. — NYT
• Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants Harris to win the US presidential election “so badly.”

National Security

• The Pentagon is sending a small number of additional troops to the Middle East.

Foreign Policy

• Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed 492 people, including 93 women and children, and wounded 1,645, Lebanese officials said Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged civilians in southern and eastern Lebanon to evacuate the areas.

Technology

• Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said the platform will provide authorities with user data in response to valid legal requests.
• The Commerce Department is finalizing an agreement with Minnesota chipmaker Polar Semiconductor to provide millions of dollars for its expansion, meaning the first dollars will soon start flowing under the bipartisan chips law. The company reached an initial agreement with Commerce in May to receive $120 million, and the final award will include an additional $3 million for workforce development.

Media

• President Biden will be on “The View” on Wednesday.
• Melania Trump will sit for an interview with Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt that will air on Thursday.

Big Read

• Kamala Harris and Kimberly Guilfoyle have a long and frosty history, The New York Times reports. Guilfoyle, the ex-wife of Gavin Newsom and former Fox News personality, claims that Harris tried to deny her a position two decades ago while working as an assistant district attorney in San Francisco (an accusation that Harris denies). Now, the two are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, as Harris fights for the presidency and Guilfoyle, who is engaged to Donald Trump Jr., serves as a key surrogate for Harris’ opponent, Donald Trump.

Blindspot

Stories that are being largely ignored by either left-leaning or right-leaning outlets, curated with help from our partners at Ground News.

What the Left isn’t reading: A Secret Service agent is expected to survive after accidentally shooting himself in Washington over the weekend.

What the Right isn’t reading: The Republican Governors Association doesn’t plan to make more ad buys in North Carolina following revelations about GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson’s comments on a porn message board.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Elana Schor, Morgan Chalfant

Reporters: Burgess Everett, Kadia Goba, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, Shelby Talcott, David Weigel

Jerry Nadler is a Democratic congressman from New York. His district includes parts of Manhattan.