Principals

1. Monstrous Milton
2. Harris’ ‘change’ status
3. Trump favored on economy
4. Trump-Putin revelations
5. DSCC race
6. Republican NY hopes
7. Cuban vs. Khan
8. The GOP anti-trans bet

PDB: Feds weigh Google breakup

Trump in Pennsylvania; Harris in Las Vegas … Fed minutes to shed light on rate move … WSJ: Israel refuses to share details about Iran response with US

Florida, feds brace for a monstrous storm

Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall tonight and “could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century,” President Biden warned. Biden scrapped a planned trip to Germany and Angola as federal officials train their attention on the storm. Officials are also grappling with a rise in misinformation around the response to Hurricane Helene, fanned by Donald Trump as the disaster becomes an issue on the campaign trail. “It is profound and it is the height of irresponsibility and frankly callousness,” Kamala Harris shot back on “The View.” FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell said the false rumors are dissuading survivors from asking for help and damaging the morale of emergency responders. Republican North Carolina Rep. Chuck Edwards, meanwhile, released a fact sheet debunking false information around the Hurricane Helene response: “Hurricane Helene was NOT geoengineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits in Chimney Rock.”

Harris balances ‘change’ and loyalty

Harris is struggling to balance her status as a “change” candidate with her loyalty to Joe Biden. On “The View” Tuesday, Harris was asked what she’d have done differently than Biden over the last four years: “There is not a thing that comes to mind,” she said, before later adding that she’d have a Republican in her Cabinet. She wasn’t any clearer to Stephen Colbert. “I’m obviously not Joe Biden,” she said, and she’s “not Donald Trump.” The answers were a gift to Trump’s campaign; as GOP strategist Alex Conant put it: “She laid out Trump’s message better than Trump ever has himself.” Evan Roth Smith, the lead pollster for centrist firm Blueprint Strategies, noted that voters want Harris to emphatically draw distance between herself and Biden. Smith called the exchange “a missed opportunity” for Harris, who, despite being in office now, is currently seen as the “change” candidate.

— Shelby Talcott

Voters still prefer Trump on the economy

Donald Trump outperforms Kamala Harris on the issue nine-in-10 US voters say is “very” or “extremely” important to their vote in November: the economy. According to new Gallup polling, 54% of registered voters prefer Trump to handle the economy while 45% pick Harris, despite recent figures suggesting the gap is closing as inflation eases. And 52% of voters say the economy has an “extremely” important influence on their vote — the highest it’s been since October 2008 amid the financial crisis. In a sign of the partisan times, there is no overlap between Republicans’ top five issues (economy, immigration, national security, crime, and taxes) and those cited by Democrats (democracy, Supreme Court picks, abortion, health care, and education). While Trump is ahead on immigration and foreign affairs, Harris has the edge on climate change, abortion, and health care.

Harris jumps on reported Trump-Putin ties

Sound familiar? Fresh revelations about Donald Trump’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin are threatening to roil the US presidential race. Kamala Harris quickly leapt on new reporting from Bob Woodward that Trump sent COVID-19 tests to Putin for his personal use at the height of the pandemic, which the Kremlin confirmed, while denying Woodward’s reporting that Trump and Putin have spoken by phone multiple times since the former president left the White House. “Former presidents often speak with foreign leaders, but it would be highly unusual for one to talk with an avowed adversary of the United States on the opposite side of a war without clearing it with the White House or State Department first,” The New York Times notes. Woodward’s reporting on the post-presidency contacts has not been confirmed by other news outlets. The Trump campaign dismissed the book’s accounts as “made-up stories.”

Padilla bows out of Dem campaign chief race

Californian Alex Padilla is not pursuing the chairmanship of Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, according to sources in the party, leaving Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand as the lone senator seeking the job at the moment. Padilla, a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee vice chair, is “not currently pursuing the DSCC Chair position for the next cycle, but he will certainly play an active role in supporting Senate Democratic incumbents and candidates in the 2026 midterm elections,” a spokesperson told Semafor. Padilla’s co-vice chair, Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, will be focused on her own 2026 race and is not a contender for the campaign chief post either. Ultimately, it’s a decision for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who won’t weigh in until after the election. There’s a better map for Democrats in 2026 than the last two cycles … and Gillibrand actually wants the job, which isn’t always the case.

— Burgess Everett

Republicans eye New York with hope

Congressional Republicans are feeling pretty good about their chances in New York, Semafor’s Kadia Goba reports. That’s because Kamala Harris is currently lagging behind President Biden’s 2020 performance in the state. To be sure, Harris isn’t in danger of losing New York, but bringing over more independents or disaffected conservatives to Democratic candidates down-ballot in battleground districts that could well decide the balance of power in the House next year. New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of House GOP leadership, has poured some $6 million into her state’s swing districts through her New York Battleground Fund and other fundraising arms. “We think this is a real opportunity, not only to hold those seats but to pick up additional seats,” she said.

Mark Cuban pushes Harris to replace FTC chief

A top Harris surrogate said he believed the Democratic nominee should replace Lina Khan as head of the Federal Trade Commission. “If it were me, I wouldn’t” keep Khan on next year, billionaire investor Mark Cuban told Semafor at a Kaiser Family Foundation lunch on Tuesday, later saying he hadn’t spoken to Harris advisers about it. Cuban commended Khan’s efforts launching antitrust probes for pharmacy benefits but said she had overstepped in taking on technology firms over AI. “The bigger picture is, she’s hurting more than she’s helping,” Cuban said. The FTC responded by emphasizing Khan’s belief that “extreme consolidation” is damaging the US. “Chair Khan believes that choosing competition over centralized corporate control of markets is the path to letting the best ideas win,” FTC spokesperson Doug Farrar told Semafor. Sen. Bernie Sanders later tweeted in support of Khan.

— Joseph Zeballos-Roig

Republican anti-trans ads are suddenly everywhere

Republicans from Donald Trump to Senate candidates around the country are pouring millions of dollars into a late barrage of ads attacking Democrats for supporting transgender rights. In Texas, Semafor’s David Weigel spent time with Sen. Ted Cruz, whose campaign against Democratic Rep. Colin Allred has increasingly focused on keeping transgender people out of sports and bathrooms. “Do our daughters have any rights?” Cruz asked a crowd at a Tex-Mex restaurant on Monday. “Does a teenage girl have any right not to have a fully naked grown man right next to her in the changing room?” Republicans ran the same playbook in the 2022 midterms and 2023 Kentucky governor’s race with little success, but are betting 2024 will be different. Trump’s own campaign is spending big on ads during football games with the tagline: “Kamala’s for they/them, President Trump is for you.”

Beltway Newsletters

Punchbowl News: House Majority Whip Tom Emmer raised $7 million in the third quarter of 2024, bringing his total fundraising haul to $32 million.

Playbook: House Speaker Mike Johnson is working to cultivate his relationship with Donald Trump by “occasionally popping into Mar-a-Lago for face time” as he tries to hang on to his leadership position.

WaPo: Kamala Harris’ strategy in Pennsylvania hinges on losing red counties by less than President Biden did in 2020.

Axios: Republicans and Democrats are surprisingly unified on policy ideas despite high partisan tensions.

White House

• President Biden and Kamala Harris will receive another briefing on Hurricane Milton preparations, and Biden will give another speech on the storm later this afternoon.
• Biden is expected to speak to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today. — Axios

Congress

• Virginia congressional candidate Bentley Hensel created an AI chatbot mimicking Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., to potentially stand in for him at an upcoming debate. — Reuters

Outside the Beltway

• Sheena Wright resigned from her position as first deputy mayor in New York Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, while another Adams aide, Mohamed Bahi, was charged with witness tampering in the Adams inquiry. — NYT

Business

• JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon said that US and UK regulators should make it “easier and cheaper” for companies to go public. — Bloomberg

Courts

• In a court filing, the Justice Department indicated it’s considering a break up of Google after a judge ruled that the company has a monopoly.
• Supreme Court justices seemed likely to uphold the Biden administration’s rule regulating “ghost guns.”

Polls

• Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump 46% to 43% nationally, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.
• Democrat Sherrod Brown is tied with GOP challenger Bernie Moreno in the Ohio Senate race, according to an internal NRSC poll. — The Hill

On the Trail

• The Cook Political Report shifted the Wisconsin Senate race from “leans Democrat” to “toss up.”
• Democrat Colin Allred raised $30 million for his Texas Senate campaign in the third quarter, beating numbers posted by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.
• An outside super PAC backing Kamala Harris is spending big to target white working-class males, a group she has struggled with. — Axios
• Democrats in Ohio are seeking to raise concerns about GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno’s Colombian heritage, which the candidate called “racist.” — NBC

National Security

• An Afghan national was arrested for allegedly planning an Election Day attack on large crowds in the US that the Justice Department said was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group.

Foreign Policy

• Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant postponed a planned trip to Washington, DC, to meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, with one Israeli official citing last-minute objections from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. — Bloomberg
• The head of the UK’s domestic spy agency said it is being stretched by security threats from Russia and Iran and the resurgence of ISIS.

Technology

• The Brazilian Supreme Court has cleared X to restart its service in the country after Elon Musk complied with an order to remove some user accounts and name a legal representative in the country for the platform.
• TikTok faces new lawsuits from bipartisan attorneys general across several states and Washington, DC, alleging harm to children’s mental health.

Media

• The New York Times began beta testing a new puzzle called Zorse, Semafor reported.
• Fox News is launching a Spanish-language news show. — Axios

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: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sparred with Fox News’ Peter Doocy over the administration’s hurricane response efforts.

What the Right isn’t reading: A report from Senate Democrats claims that the Trump White House limited an FBI review of allegations against then-Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018.

Principals Team

Editors: Benjy Sarlin, Elana Schor, Morgan Chalfant

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

Rick Scott is a Republican senator from Florida.