Politics

Washington — Bruce Springsteen endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president on Thursday, arguing the Democratic nominee supports a more unified and inclusive country while calling former President Donald Trump “the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.” 

“Perhaps not since the Civil War has this great country felt as politically, spiritually and emotionally divided as it does than at this moment. It doesn’t have to be this way,” the rock star said in a short video shared on social media.

He said Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, “are committed to a vision of this country that respects and includes everyone, regardless of class, religion, race, your political point of view or sexual identity.”

Harris’ proposals, he said, would grow the economy for everyone, not just the wealthy. 

“That’s the vision of America I’ve been consistently writing about for 55 years,” Springsteen said. 

He offered a harsh condemnation of Trump, saying the Republican nominee “doesn’t understand the meaning of this country, its history or what it means to be deeply American.” 

“His disdain for the sanctity of our Constitution, the sanctity of democracy, the sanctity of the rule of law and the sanctity of the peaceful transfer of power should disqualify him from the office of president ever again,” he said. 

The endorsement from Springsteen was no surprise. He has endorsed Democratic presidential candidates for years and has long been critical of Trump. 

In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Springsteen called Trump a “moron.” When Trump was running for reelection in 2020, Springsteen told The Atlantic he didn’t know “if our democracy could stand another four years of his custodianship.” 

It’s also unclear what impact major celebrity endorsements will have on the race. Taylor Swift drove more than 400,000 visits to vote.gov, a website with information about how to register to vote, in the 24 hours after she endorsed Harris. 

A number of other music stars have spoken out in this campaign, including some who support Trump.

Springsteen acknowledged that his “opinion is no more or less important than those of any of my fellow citizens.” 

“Like you, I’ve only got one vote and it’s one of the most precious possessions that I have,” he said. 

When former president Donald Trump takes the stage once again Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, the security apparatus around the GOP nominee will look starkly different from the day of the first assassination attempt against him, when he took cover behind his podium as a gunman opened fire. 

Secret Service and the second Butler rally

U.S. Secret Service personnel will be stationed both inside and outside of the secure perimeter. That area includes the roof of a glass company warehouse where investigators say 20-year-old Thomas Crooks fired off eight rounds on July 13, grazing Trump’s ear, killing one attendee and injuring two others. 

“Since the attempted assassination of former President Trump on July 13, the U.S. Secret Service has made comprehensive changes and enhancements to our communications capabilities, resourcing, and protective operations,” U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement. “Today, the former President is receiving heightened protection and we take the responsibility to ensure his safety and security very seriously.”

Federal law enforcement and local police began planning for Trump’s return to Butler roughly two weeks ago, multiple law enforcement officials told CBS News. The first in-person planning meeting with local law enforcement took place earlier this week, on Monday. 

“Regarding the October 5 event in Butler, we are coordinating closely with the Pennsylvania State Police as well as local law enforcement in and around Butler Township,” Guglielmi added. “We are also leveraging other federal security resources to expand personnel and technology.”

Those federal resources will include agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, who will stand post inside and outside the security perimeter. TSA agents will be working the magnetometers along the perimeter of the site, according to law enforcement sources. 

And while the 45th president’s security footprint will include more personnel and assets – complete with counter sniper teams, enhanced counter drone technology and counter assault teams – there will also be additional Pennsylvania State Police officers on site, with tactical team members blended alongside U.S. Secret Service teams throughout the event. 

Senate report on Secret Service and Trump Butler rally

Last month, an interim Senate report identified planning, communications and security failures in the U.S. Secret Service’s efforts during former President Donald Trump’s July rally that “directly contributed” to the assassination attempt against him. 

The joint investigation of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations indicated that several Secret Service officials experienced chronic problems with their radios on July 13. In one notable instance, a Secret Service countersniper was offered a local radio to help with communications through the day, but he didn’t have time to pick it up because he was working on “fixing” his own Secret Service radio. Because of failures of radios on site in Butler, the special agent in charge gave away his radio to a lead advance agent and went without one for the rest of the day, the report said. 

Trump’s detail now travels with a radio communications specialist from the U.S. Secret Service’s Office of the Chief Information Officer, whose primary purpose is to share real-time information with Trump’s team, as relayed on all law enforcement radio channels, according to multiple law enforcement sources. 

Addressing Butler rally site vulnerabilities

A number of tall buildings lining the perimeter of the Butler Farm Show create line-of-sight vulnerabilities for Trump. The Secret Service is mitigating that threat with stage enhancements, rows of farm vehicles parked around the rally site and bulletproof glass, according to the sources. 

Unlike the July 13 rally, members of the U.S. Secret Service, Pennsylvania State Police and Butler County Police will sit together in a unified command post. 

Trump in Butler amid assassination threats from Iran

The two attempts on Trump’s life followed the arrest of a Pakistani national with ties to Iran, charged with allegedly plotting a murder-for-hire scheme targeting current and former U.S. officials, including Trump. 

Matthew Olsen, head of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, said in an interview with CBS News Thursday that the U.S. government has been “intensely tracking Iranian lethal plotting efforts targeting former and current U.S. government officials – and that includes the former president.” 

Olsen added, “I would say that we are very concerned – gravely concerned – about Iranian plotting.”Last month, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed Trump on “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him.”

“I think we’ve been very, very clear that that is a threat vector that we are extremely concerned about monitoring very closely, working to gain as much information and fidelity on as we possibly can,” a senior DHS official told CBS News in a reporter briefing, Wednesday. “That is a U.S. government wide effort to involve all of our partners across the United States government.” 

A Homeland Threat Assessment released by the Department of Homeland Security Wednesday stated that Iran “maintains its intent to kill US government officials it deems responsible for the 2020 death of its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)-Quds Force Commander and designated foreign terrorist Qassem Soleimani,” an action carried out during the Trump administration.  

“It is no secret that this is a challenge we are confronting on a daily basis right now,” the DHS senior official added.

Authorities anticipate roughly 25,000-30,000 will be attending the rally Saturday. 

Nikole Killion, Daniel Klaidman, Clare Hymes, Michael Kaplan contributed reporting. 

contributed to this report.

Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to continue enforcing for now a new rule that set more stringent standards on emissions of mercury and other toxic metals from coal-fired power plants.

The court declined a request for emergency relief sought by nearly a dozen states and the energy sector, which had argued the EPA’s new standards are not necessary under the Clean Air Act because they yield no quantifiable public health benefit. There were no noted dissents.

The measure is one of three implemented by the EPA in recent months that is being challenged by the energy industry and nearly half of the states. The challengers have made separate requests for the Supreme Court to temporarily halt all three of the new rules, including the Biden administration’s restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The EPA rule

This case involves the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, which are emissions requirements for coal-fired power plants first issued by the EPA in 2012. The agency argued it had the authority to set the levels under a Clean Air Act program addressing emissions of hazardous air pollutants that pose a risk of adverse health effects, which include neurotoxins like mercury, human carcinogens such as arsenic and other toxic chemicals.

But the Supreme Court in 2015 ruled that the EPA improperly failed to consider the costs of regulating power plants’ emissions of hazardous air pollutants. Several years later, in 2023, the EPA determined after considering the costs that regulation of power plants is “appropriate and necessary,” a standard set by the Clean Air Act.

The EPA rolled out the rule at the center of the dispute in May after finding that certain technological developments warranted changes to the 2012 emissions standards for coal-fired power plants. The new limits took effect in July, and plants have up to three years to comply with them.

The rule first tightened the emissions standards for non-mercury metals. An EPA assessment found more than 90% of coal-fired plants can already meet the new limit. Only two plants at a facility in Montana would have to install new technologies to meet the revised standard, according to the agency.

The measure also requires plants that use lignite coal to meet the same mercury emissions standards as facilities firing other types of coal.

Several states, power plants, mining companies and other energy industry groups challenged the rule in federal court earlier this year and asked it to halt enforcement during legal proceedings. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied their request to pause the rule and expedited its review of the measure.

Seven different groups, including 23 states, then sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court.

The states had argued that the new rule will impose weighty costs and risk destabilizing the nation’s power grids without any quantifiable public health benefit for reducing emissions of hazardous air pollutants.

“EPA cannot quantify any relevant or meaningful public health or environmental benefit from the mandated reduction in [hazardous air pollutants] emissions. None,” attorneys general for the nearly two dozen states told the Supreme Court in a filing.

The states said that if the rule is allowed to take effect, implementation costs will be significant, raising the likelihood that power plants will be forced to shutter and electricity prices could rise.

But the Biden administration has refuted the claims from the energy industry and states. First, the EPA found that nearly all coal-fired power plants can meet the tightened standards without significant investments, it said in a filing.

The EPA also projected that no coal-fired plant would retire because of the rule. Additionally, the Biden administration warned that pausing the rule would harm downwind states and tribal communities that live near power plants.

The Supreme Court’s order follows a series of recent rulings that have curtailed efforts by the EPA to keep the nation’s air and water clean. In June, the high court divided 5-4 to block the agency’s so-called “good neighbor” plan, which aims to curb air pollution and address harmful smog.

Last year, it curbed the EPA’s authority to regulate certain wetlands under the Clean Water Act. In June 2022, the high court found Congress didn’t grant the EPA the authority under the Clean Air Act to set emissions caps based on the generation-shifting approach taken through the Clean Power Plan rule.

Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Biden administration to continue enforcing, for the time being, a new rule that aims to curb emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from new and existing oil and gas facilities.

The high court rejected a request from nearly half of the states and industry groups to put the measure from the Environmental Protection Agency on hold while proceedings over its legality continue. There were no noted dissents.

The measure is among a suite of initiatives from the Biden administration that aims to tackle climate change. Two other recent rules from the EPA are also facing court challenges, including its stringent restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The EPA’s methane rule

The rule at issue in this case was finalized in December and takes direct aim at the oil and gas industry, which the EPA said is the “largest industrial source of methane pollution” in the country. The measure, which took effect in May, sets emissions standards and guidelines for methane and smog-forming volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, from new and existing oil and gas wells. 

In addition to the performance standards to reduce air pollution from new facilities, the measure lays out procedures for states that will submit to the EPA implementation plans for existing wells to curtail methane emissions.

The EPA’s methane-emission guidelines include a “model rule” that includes “presumptive standards for designated facilities.” Each state is required to come up with a plan that is “at least as protective as the model rule,” or comply with a separate regulation involving the variance process, according to the EPA.

Known as a “super pollutant,” methane is more powerful than carbon dioxide and is responsible for roughly one-third of the planet-warming that is attributable to greenhouse gases, according to the EPA. The Biden administration has argued that quick, sharp cuts in methane can create near-immediate benefits and are crucial to slowing the rate of global warming.

But not long after the rule was published, 23 states and the Arizona legislature, as well as oil and gas companies and industry groups, challenged the measure in the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., and asked it to halt its enforcement during litigation.

A three-judge panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously denied the requests to pause the rule, finding that the challengers failed to satisfy the requirements for a stay during its review.

The states and industry associations then sought emergency relief from the Supreme Court, arguing that the rule violates the Clean Air Act.

The gas companies argued that the rule is an “authoritarian national command” from the EPA that usurps states’ authority to set performance standards for methane and VOCs for oil and gas facilities. The states, meanwhile, accused the EPA of attempting to use a provision of the Clean Air Act to unlawfully attack the oil and gas industry.

The states said that by requiring the “presumptive standards,” the rule will decrease oil and gas production, forcing many wells to close.

But the Biden administration told the Supreme Court in a filing that its methane-emission guidelines for state regulation of existing wells are lawful and fully comport with the Clean Air Act. The “presumptive standards” included in the emissions guidelines do not keep states from adopting their own approaches, but rather give them a model to rely on, administration officials said.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who represents the government before the Supreme Court, said the states have misunderstood what is required in the plan, and warned that any postponement of the rule would significantly harm the government and the public.

“Climate change is the nation’s most pressing environmental challenge; the primary cause of climate change is the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere; methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas that drives climate change and additionally results in ground-level ozone; and the oil and gas industry is the largest industrial emitter of methane in the United States,” the Justice Department argued in a Supreme Court filing.

The Biden administration warned that pausing the rule would delay the “substantial” methane-emission reductions that the EPA is seeking, harming public health.

The Supreme Court’s order comes after it issued a series of recent rulings that have limited efforts by the EPA to keep the nation’s air and water clean. In June, the high court divided 5-4 to block the agency’s so-called “good neighbor” plan, which aims to curb air pollution and address harmful smog. 

Last year, it curbed the EPA’s authority to regulate certain wetlands under the Clean Water Act. In June 2022, the high court found Congress didn’t grant the EPA the authority under the Clean Air Act to set emissions caps based on the generation-shifting approach taken through the Clean Power Plan rule.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is appearing with former President Donald Trump for the first time since Trump sought to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. 

Trump is visiting the state to survey damage caused by Hurricane Helene and will be briefed by local officials along with Kemp. The two are also expected to speak to reporters. 

Kemp endorsed Trump in August, despite yearslong tension between the two after Kemp refused his push for a special legislative session to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election, which Trump lost to President Biden. The former president publicly berated Kemp and state election officials, and in a January 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, told Raffensberger to “find 11,780” votes — the margin of his loss in Georgia — according to audio obtained by CBS News. 

Both Fulton County, Georgia, and special counsel Jack Smith have separately indicted Trump, accusing him of seeking to overturn the election results in the state. Trump denies all wrongdoing. Raffensperger stated that Georgia had accurately counted the votes, that the election’s integrity had not been violated and that Mr. Biden had won Georgia. 

Trump was reluctant to abandon his feud with Kemp, disparaging him as “Little Brian Kemp” at an Atlanta rally before the endorsement and calling Kemp and his wife disloyal. Kemp responded on “X.”

Kemp has ultimately chosen a different route than his lieutenant governor at the time, Geoff Duncan. Duncan, also a staunch Republican, is not only voting for Vice President Kamala Harris, but endorsed her in a speech at the Democratic National Convention, urging other Republicans to follow his lead. 

“To my fellow Republicans at home that want to pivot back toward policy, empathy and tone, you know the right thing to do, now let’s have the courage to do it in November,” Duncan said at the DNC in Chicago. 

“In our family, my wife, Brooke, and I are raising three boys and we have a family motto,” Duncan said at the DNC. “And it says, ‘Doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing.’ During 2020, during just the lowest of lows when we had armed officers outside our house protecting us from other Republicans, Donald Trump had targeted us. My son came downstairs and he handed me this coaster that I had given him years before at a father-son retreat for our church. And he said, ‘Hey dad, doing the right thing will never be the wrong thing. Stay strong.'”

The political class barely shrugged in August when Corey Lewandowski announced he was back at former President Donald Trump’s side. But when Trashelle Odom learned that Lewandowski had joined Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign as a senior adviser, it was a gut punch. That’s because a little over three years ago, in 2021, Odom, then the wife of a wealthy Republican donor, had reported Lewandowski to the police for allegedly assaulting and stalking her at a Las Vegas charity event. Later, she said his lawyers offered her payment to keep quiet. 

Lewandowski, who was Trump’s first campaign manager, was charged with misdemeanor battery and reached an agreement with prosecutors to dismiss the charges in exchange for community service, a $1,000 fine, enrollment in an impulse control class and an apology in court to Odom for “any discomfort he may have caused her.” Lewandowski was ousted from Trump’s orbit, where he’d been running a super PAC supporting the former president. A Trump spokesman vowed at the time that Lewandowski “would no longer be associated with Trump world.”  

In response to a request for comment, lawyers for Lewandowski, David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, stated, “Lewandowski was not charged with assault or stalking in Clark County, Nevada. In fact, the case against Mr. Lewandowski was dismissed.”

Odom said his dismissal put her on a path to healing. She divorced, moved to another state, left the world of politics and started a small business while raising her young children.  

So when a friend called her last month to tell her Lewandowski was back in the Trump fold, she told CBS News she was stunned.  

“I just broke down,” she said in her first television interview since Lewandowski’s return. “I was very, very upset.” Odom said she wanted others to hear her story. “He has his power back,” she said. 

Lewandowski’s aggressive style and penchant for personal peccadilloes made for a turbulent tenure in Trump’s orbit. But Trump has stayed loyal to Lewandowksi, bringing him back into his inner circle after he was fired twice, once by the campaign and once by the super PAC Make America Great Again Action. 

The longtime political strategist, who once served as a New Hampshire state trooper, rose to prominence for his role in catapulting Trump — a longshot candidate — all the way to the White House. Since the 2016 election, he’s been described as a kind of comfort pillow for Trump. He is someone who encourages the former president’s more extreme instincts, even when other aides are looking to rein him in. 

“Let Trump be Trump” is Lewandowski’s mantra — and the name of a book he co-wrote in 2017 with Dave Bossie, Trump’s former deputy campaign manager.   

“I just like him,” Trump recently told New York magazine. “Corey’s a character.” Lewandowski faced scrutiny for his treatment of women almost from the start. During the 2016 campaign, CCTV footage showed him grabbing a journalist’s arm following a press conference. Images from the video showed she had bruises on her arm. Lewandowski was charged with simple battery, but prosecutors ultimately dropped the charges. 

Lewandowski’s lawyers said in response to the allegation that the matter “was concluded long ago with Florida authorities electing not to pursue charges after completing their investigation.”

In 2017, a woman told police that Lewandowski slapped her behind during a holiday party at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C. She objected, according to the police report, but Lewandowski ignored her disapproval and did it again.  

“It was completely demeaning and shocking,” she told Politico, but in the end, she declined to press charges.  

Odom said she’d hoped to never have to publicly revisit the memories. But after learning that Lewandowski had returned to Trump’s side, she told CBS News she felt compelled to come forward and tell her story. She said she wanted to “give a voice” to women who may have had similar experiences but can’t speak up. 

“I want them to feel safe, and I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she said. 

She described what happened to her that evening as terrifying and at times during the interview fought back tears. Lewandowski, Odom said, made her feel uncomfortable from the moment she sat down next to him.  

“He was targeting just me. His eyes were just on me,” she said.  He quickly turned the conversation to his workout routines and bragged about his sexual prowess. “He said that I should go work out with him in his bedroom …and he was saying how large his privates were and saying how long he lasts in bed because of how much he works out.”

Soon, according to Odom, Lewandwowski began touching her.  “He was … putting his hands, like on my lap,” and he attempted to “just caress my leg and like going up my side and like, trying to touch my butt.” She said when she left the dinner, Lewandowski followed her through the hotel.  

“I felt like I was his prey,” she said. “He was very persistent, aggressive.” At one point, she said Lewandowski threw his drink at her. When she confronted him about it, “he started laughing,” Odom recalled.  

Odom, now 35, was exposed to the political world through her now ex-husband, John Odom, a Boise, Idaho, construction executive who gave generously to Trump’s reelection effort. But she said she doesn’t want her story to be caught up in the political maelstrom. 

“I don’t want it to be about Trump. I don’t want it to be about politics,” she said.

And yet, she is speaking out just a month before the presidential election, at a time when Trump is facing a historic gender gap with his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. According to CBS News’ most recent polling, Harris leads Trump among women, 55% to 44%. Well aware of the deficit, Trump has been courting women voters. He recently took to social media to make the case that women would be far better off if he were to win the presidency, rather than Harris.  

“I will protect women at a level never seen before,” he boasted on Truth Social. “They will finally be healthy, hopeful, safe, and secure.” 

But Trump, of course, has his own baggage when it comes to the treatment of women. Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct by no fewer than 20 women over the years, allegations that he has denied. And last year he was held liable for sexual abuse in a civil case brought by magazine journalist E. Jean Carroll (Trump is appealing the verdict). 

Meanwhile, evidence has emerged that the Trump campaign has paid money to women to bury their accusations. A July filing in a gender discrimination case against the 2016 Trump campaign included text messages from former Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis alleging that the campaign settled multiple sexual harassment cases. For her part, Odom revealed in her CBS News interview that Lewandowski’s lawyers had offered her more than $30,000 to keep the episode confidential. She rejected the offer. 

A few days after Odom accused Lewandowski of sexually harassing her, she got a call from Trump, who himself has been found guilty in a “hush money” case. 

During their conversation, Trump alleged that Lewandowski had been drunk. Odom said she appreciated the call. Donald Trump Jr. called, as well, expressing his regret over what had happened to her.  

“He was very kind and said things to make me feel like Corey would not be there anymore,” Odom said.

The Trump campaign has not responded to a request for comment.

Since Lewandowki has been back, he’s been given a public-facing role, defending Trump and driving the campaign’s message in multiple TV interviews. He has not been asked about Odom’s accusation. Odom, for her part, never wanted to go on television to talk about what happened to her that night in Las Vegas, but she said she felt she had no choice. She believes Lewandowski has not changed. 

“If I can give just a little bit to one person, me speaking up is worth it,” she said through tears.